Go/no-go task (GNGT)


How impulsive are people?

The Go/No Go task is an experimental paradigm that measures people’s capacity not to respond (response inhibition), and can be used as a proxy to measure behaviors like impulsiveness. Response inhibition refers to ‘the suppression of actions that are inappropriate in a given context and that interferes with goal-driven behavior (Mostofsky et. al, 2008).’ Similar to the Sternberg and Visual Search Tasks, this task measures people’s reaction times as a way to quantify the speed of one’s mental processing of certain parts of a task. Inhibitory control and more generally, cognitive control refers to the process that allows information processing and behavior to vary from moment to moment. The prefrontal cortex is believed to play a key role in supporting this process.

Resources:
  • Mostofsky SH, Simmonds DJ. Response inhibition and response selection: two sides of the same coin. J Cogn Neurosci. 2008 May;20(5):751-61. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2008.20500. PMID: 18201122. link
  • Background on Go/No Go task https://www.neurobs.com/manager/content/docs/psychlab101_experiments/Go-NoGo%20Task/description.html

Parameters
The following features can be tweaked (default values in parentheses):
  • Task instructions
  • Number of main trials (79 Go trials, 21 No-go trials)
  • Number of practice trials (8 Go trials, 4 No-go trials)
  • Number of correct hits necessary to pass training phase (4)
  • Number of correct rejections necessary to pass training phase (2)
  • Message after successful/unsuccessful completion of training phase
  • Duration of feedback during training phase (1000 ms)
  • Color of stimuli
  • Shape of NoGo stimulus (circle)
  • Duration of stimulus presentation (500 ms)
  • Participant response window (500 ms)
  • Mean value of random time-interval between trials
  • Standard deviation of random time-interval between trials
  • Whether trials should be randomized (yes)
  • Whether or not to skip the training phase (no)

What data is collected? How is it scored?
The following variables are recorded:
  • GNGT_proportionCorrectGo
  • GNGT_proportionCorrectNoGo
  • GNGT_meanRTGo
  • GNGT_numberGoTrials
  • GNGT_numberNoGoTrials
The main variables are the proportion correct for each condition (Go/No-Go), the average reaction time for Go trials, and the number of both kinds of trials (Go/No-Go)

Parámetros

Se pueden modificar las siguientes características de este task:

* Se muestran los valores predeterminados (se puede clonar task y modificarlos)

_instruction

In this task you will be shown figures in different shapes.

After the shape appears, press spacebar as soon as possible. Please use the index finger of your dominant hand. ATTENTION: If a circle appears, do not press!

Press the spacebar when you are ready.

_colorNegativeFeedback

red

_colorPositiveFeedback

brown

_positiveFeedbackHit

Right! Correctly pressed.

_positiveFeedbackCorrectMiss

Right! Good job not pressing the key.

_negativeFeedbackFalseAlarm

Wrong! You should not have pressed the key.

_negativeFeedbackWrongMiss

Wrong! You should have pressed the key.

_correctMissTestThreshold

2

_stimulusColor

blue

_practiceSuccessMessage

Well done! Ready for the main task? Press the space bar to start.

_practiceFailureMessage

Your reactions were too slow or wrong. Press the spacebar as soon as possible after the form appears. ATTENTION: If a circle appears, do not press! Please press the space bar to repeat the exercise attempts.

_endMessage

Thanks a lot! You will be automatically forwarded to the next page.

_timeFeedbackPractice

1000

_stimulusDuration

500

_timeToResponse_test

500

_meanBetweenStimuliInterval_practice

500

_sdBetweenStimuliInterval_practice

0

_numberNoGoTrials_practice

4

_numberGoTrials_practice

8

_meanBetweenStimuliInterval

500

_sdBetweenStimuliInterval

0

_numberNoGoTrials

9

_numberGoTrials

11

_noGoStimulus

circle

_hitTestThreshold

4

_skipPractice

false

Lo que ven los participantes antes de tomar el task

In this task, you are asked to press a key as figures of different shapes appear.

Lo que ven los participantes después de tomar el task

The Go/No Go task measures the commission error rate (making a “go” response on “no-go” trials) and can be used as a test of cognitive control. Fewer errors signify better response inhibition (the capacity not to respond).

Variables agregadas

Estos datos se escriben automáticamente en un archivo csv al finalizar la task

Más información

Measures impulsive tendencies

  • GNGT_proportionCorrectGo
  • GNGT_proportionCorrectNoGo
  • GNGT_meanRTGo
  • GNGT_numberGoTrials
  • GNGT_numberNoGoTrials

Duración

7-8 mins

Recursos

  • Mostofsky SH, Simmonds DJ. Response inhibition and response selection: two sides of the same coin. J Cogn Neurosci. 2008 May;20(5):751-61. doi: 10.1162/jocn.2008.20500. PMID: 18201122. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18201122/#:~:text=Response%20inhibition%20refers%20to%20the,interfere%20with%20goal%2Ddriven%20behavior.)
  • Background on Go/No Go task https://www.neurobs.com/manager/content/docs/psychlab101_experiments/Go-NoGo%20Task/description.html

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