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2.3.1. The Cognitive Impulsivity Suite (CIS)
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ADDICTION AND IMPULSIVTY RESEARCH LAB
Cognitive Impulsivity Collaborator Manual
Summary
The Cognitive Impulsivity Suite (CIS) is a gamified assessment of three constructs important for understanding impulsive behaviours: attentional energisation (or attentional control), information accumulation (or information gathering), and monitoring of feedback (i.e. monitoring/shifting):
- Attentional control is assessed with a Bounty Hunter task. This presents participants with two stimuli (a bandit or a sheriff) and their goal is to shoot the bandits (‘go’) but not the sheriffs (‘no-go’). Sheriffs usually appear in daylight (blue sky), while bandits usually appear at dusk (dark sky).
- Information gathering is assessed with a Caravan Spotter task, where participants are presented with a totally ambiguous pixelated image that gradually disambiguates over the course of the trial, and instructed to decide which of two stimuli the pixelated image will ultimately morph into (for example, a buffalo or a cougar). Participants are awarded points for speed and accuracy, but penalized for incorrect responses.
- Prospector’s gamble is a task designed to assess monitoring of feedback and shifting in response to feedback: participants are instructed to choose the luckier of the two prospectors in an (unbeknownst to participants) 75/25 probabilistic reinforcement schedule. The correct/incorrect feedback (that is, indicating whether they have selected/not selected the luckier prospector, that is, the one that secures the reward ~75% of the times), delivered after each trial in small or large quantities of money is designed to promote reward- and loss-driven impulsive responses.
The above description is adapted from Verdejo-Garcia et al. (2021), which reports the evidence for the validity of the CIS for use online and in face-to-face research. A Short video clips on each of these tasks can also be viewed here. A demo version can be tested using this link: monimp3.erc.monash.edu
CIS task operation
By default, the CIS will choose a random order to present the three tasks to participants. It will include a short practice at the beginning of each of these tasks. It will assign a random string to the data file as a user ID so that each time the CIS is loaded and some or all of the tasks are completed the data is uniquely identifiable. Participants will need a computer that has an external keyboard and mouse, as well as the ability to hear sounds that come from the task – with headphones or speakers – and a quiet space to concentrate. Participants will also require a stable internet connection. The CIS will run in a standard internet browser with the link(s) provided.
Modifying the CIS with URL parameters
Some task variables can be set by adding URL parameters to the link that is used to access the CIS. There are two key variables that can be modified using URL parameters: userid and order. Setting userid with a URL parameter allows you to specify a particular unique subject ID to pair with the data collected when running the task with that link. To specify a URL parameter like userid, add a question mark and the variable after the URL. For example:
https://[server address].edu/?userid=SUBJECTID
Running the CIS with the above link would result in the string ‘SUBJECTID’ populating the rows of the variable userid in the data file. You can also specify a fixed order for the three tasks by setting the variable order to a string of three numbers (123) in the order that you wish the tasks to appear. 1 is in reference to the Bounty Hunter task, 2 is in reference to the Caravan Spotter task, and 3 is in reference to Prospector’s gamble. In the examples below, the first link only sets the order for the three tasks, while the second link sets both the userid and the order of the task by separating the parameter reference with an ampersand:
https://[server address].edu/?order=123
https://[server address].edu/?userid=SUBJECTID&order=123
Reading the data in Excel
- Locate and open one of the files on your own computer (i.e. not in the virtual computer).
- Select all of column A, then under the DATA tab, click on Text to Columns.
- Ensure Delimited is selected. Click Next.
- Under Delimiters, ensure that only Semicolon is selected. Press Finish.
- Save your file, then repeat for the other two files.
Data
Contact us to arrange retrieval of the data for your project and for any data related questions. Below is a table that lists and provides a description of all of the variables included within the data and the values you might find.
| variable name | description | values | ||
| All tasks | ||||
| id | participant ID | |||
| task | name of the task. ae is short for Attentional energisation, and refers to the Bounty hunter task. ia is short for Information accumulation, and refers to the Caravan Spotter task. mof is short for Monitoring of feedback, and refers to Prospector’s Gamble. | 1 2 3 | ae ia mof | |
| build | Version number for the CIS game | |||
| computerPlatform | 1 2 3 | win mac other | ||
| is_touch | Whether the system used was touch screen or not | 0 1 | No Yes | |
| date | date begun task | DDMMYYYY | ||
| time | time begun task | HH:MM:SS | ||
| totalTime | total time elapsed for task (minutes) | |||
| setGameOrder | order of tasks if set through config file or query parameter | |||
| orderNumber | The order that the task was experienced by each participant | 1 2 3 | First Second third | |
| block_number | 1 2 3 4 98 99 |
Non-game trials Practice trials | ||
| trial_number | ||||
| trial_scoreChange | points gained or lost thist trial | |||
| trial_scoreNet | cumulative points at end of this trial | |||
| trial_latency | trial response time | |||
| Bounty Hunter | ||||
| block_goStimulus | go stimulus name | |||
| block_nogoStimulus | no-go stimulus name | |||
| block_validityChance | proportion of valid trials in this block | |||
| trial_shownCue | go or no-go cue shown this trial | 1 2 | go nogo | |
| trial_shownStimulus | go or no-go stimulus shown this trial | 1 2 | Go nogo | |
2 | nogo | |||
| trial_validity | trial validity | 1 2 | valid invalid | |
2 | invalid | |||
| trial_SOA | trial stimulus onset asynchrony | |||
| trial_responseType | participant response | 1 2 3 4 | correcthit correctmiss commission omission | |
| Caravan Spotter | ||||
| block_stimulusOne | stimulus one name | |||
| block_stimulusTwo | stimulus two name | |||
| trial_colourDistortion | type of colour distortion in the trial | |||
| trial_correctStimulus | correct stimulus in the trial | |||
| trial_selectedStimulus | stimulus chosen by participant | 1 2 3 | [stimulus one name] | |
2 | [stimulus two name] | |||
3 | missed | |||
| trial_responseType | participant response | 1 2 3 | correct incorrect omission | |
| Prospector’s Gamble | ||||
| task_stimulusOne | stimulus one name | |||
| task_stimulusTwo | stimulus two name | |||
| task_proportionEnhancedFeedback | proportion of enhanced vs. basic feedback | [should be always 0.5 for now] | ||
| block_proportionTrueFeedback | likelihood of true feedback in this block | |||
| block_correctStimulus | correct stimulus in this block | |||
| trial_locationCorrectStimulus | location of correct stimulus this trial | 1 2 | left right | |
| trial_replayCount | number of times trial repeated due to no response | |||
| trial_selectedStimulus | stimulus chosen by participant | 1 2 | [stimulus one name] [sstimulus two name] | |
| trial_feedbackType | positive or negative feedback | 1 2 | positive negative | |
| trial_feedbackCondition | feedback condition of the trial | 1 2 | basic enhanced | |
Contact information
Dr Justin Mahlberg
Professor Antonio Verdejo-Garcia
Resources
Verdejo-Garcia, A., Tiego, J., Kakoschke, N., Moskovsky, N., Voigt, K., Anderson, A., ... & Bellgrove, M. A. (2021). A unified online test battery for cognitive impulsivity reveals relationships with real-world impulsive behaviours. Nature Human Behaviour, 5(11), 1562-1577. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01127-3, Preregistration DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/VHN95
- Voigt, K and Verdejo-Garcia, A(2022). 2.3.1. The Cognitive Impulsivity Suite (CIS). Bio-protocol Preprint. bio-protocol.org/prep1879.
- Voigt, K., Giddens, E., Stark, R., Frisch, E., Moskovsky, N., Kakoschke, N., Stout, J. C., Bellgrove, M. A., Andrews, Z. B. and Verdejo-Garcia, A.(2021). The Hunger Games: Homeostatic State-Dependent Fluctuations in Disinhibition Measured with a Novel Gamified Test Battery. Nutrients 13(6). DOI: 10.3390/nu13062001
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