Folk11 Instructions

Thank you for participating in this experiment. Your task in this experiment is simple but we hope you will find it mildly entertaining. You will see a display of colored digits filling the computer screen in front of you. After one second, a voice coming from the computer will tell you what digit you should search for. You just need to decide whether this “target digit” is present among the red digits in this display, trying to respond as rapidly and accurately as possible. Half of the time the displays will contain the red target digit; half the time they will not. Sometimes there will be green digits on the screen and sometimes digits will be bright and other times dim. However, the task is always the same; your focus should be on the red digits. This is especially critical because when you are searching for a particular red target digit (say, “7”), there will usually be several green examples of this digit in the display; they have nothing to do with the correct response, which depends only on the red digits.

At the beginning of each trial, a cross will appear in the middle of the screen. When this happens, please look directly at the cross. Once the display appears, you may move your eyes to scan the display if you find that helpful. If you find the target, you should press the YES key (M on the keyboard). If you do not find the target, you should press the NO key (N on the keyboard). Please keep the index and middle fingers of your right hand rested on these two keys throughout the experiment. Please try to respond as quickly and accurately as possible. The computer will beep at you to let you know whether you were right or wrong.

The experiment is divided into ten sets of trials, each of which will last a few minutes. At the end of each set of trials, the computer will tell you how quickly and accurately you have been responding..

If you have any questions, please ask the experimenter now. Your best effort in this experiment will allow us to learn the most from your data about the nature of distraction. Thank you again for your participation.