Creating the SE-IAT website

4.4.2.1. Brief overview of major existing software packages for timed test

There are a number of reaction time packages, both commercial as well as open-source, that are available for computerizing IAT nowadays. Either option comes with a certain trade-off. Open-source software packages usually require researchers to have knowledge of certain programming language(s) in order to create a customized test. Whilst most commercial software packages offer a user-friendly interface with drag- and-drop features, they do not require any programming skills. But those commercial software packages are often not offered online like most open-source packages. Table 4.5 summarised the advantages and disadvantages of current available reaction time software packages.

Table 4.5 A brief overview of reaction time software packages (Cek, 2015)

Softwares Online? Requiring

Programming skills?

Advantages Disadvantages

Commercial

DirectRT No Yes Simple syntax to follow to customize test Can only be used offline

E-Prime No No No programming skill needed Can only be used offline; need to

become acquainted with a multi-window visual user interface first

Inquist for Web Yes Yes Can be used with third party questionnaire

software such as Survey Monkey

Requiring relatively complex syntax to program tests

Superlab No No No programming skill needed;

questionnaires can be implemented at the same time

Can only be used offline

Open-source

FreeIAT No No Avoids Internet reaction time issues Can only be used offline; available only

with Windows system

WebIAT Yes Yes Tested on most systems and browsers Requiring researchers to host a Web

server

WEXTOR Yes No Fulfills all ethical requirements for web-

based studies

Hasn't been tested for reaction time studies

Softwares Online? Requiring

Programming skills?

Advantages Disadvantages

programming

jsPsych Yes Yes Fulfills all ethical requirements for web-

based studies

Requiring researchers to host a Web

server; requiring extensive

programming skills

Tatool Yes Yes Avoids Internet reaction time issues Requiring complex programming

knowledge; incompatible with third party questionnaire software

WebExp Yes Yes Fulfills all ethical requirements for web-

based studies

Requiring extensive programming

skills; incompatible with third party questionnaire software

JATOS Yes No Very simple user-friendly graphical

interface

Hasn't been tested for reaction time studies; incompatible with third party questionnaire software

ORTEngine Yes No Very simple user-friendly graphical

interface

Less flexible; requiring complex programming knowledge to be used with third party questionnaire software

ScriptingRT Yes Yes Validated for reaction time studies Requiring extensive programming

knowledge; incompatible with third party questionnaire software

4.4.2.2. Using the Project Implicit virtual lab to implement SE-IAT online

There are three requirements when selecting the appropriate software to create the SE- IAT website. First, due to the time constraints of the present PhD project, it is impractical to expect the researcher to put much effort in learning a new programming language from scratch, thus software packages requiring programming skills including

Inquisit for Web, OpenSesame, Webexp, ORTEngine, and ScriptRT were ruled out.

Second, the SE-IAT needs to be administered with self-report questionnaire, reaction time software packages that cannot be used with third party questionnaire software including Tatool and JATOS were not selected. Third, software packages that can only be used offline including DirectRT, E-Prime, Superlab and FreeIAT were dropped as well. The remaining open-source software packages WebIAT and WEXTOR fulfill all the three requirements, but neither was selected because WebIAT requires researchers to host a personal web server and WEXTOR had not been tested with any reaction time task before.

Under such circumstances, the task of creating a website to administer SE-IAT and self- report questionnaires online was outsourced to the technical service team from Project Implicit (PI), a virtual lab managed by IAT experts from Harvard University. The homepage link to PI is implicit.harvard.edu.

The Project Implicit Virtual Lab was selected because 1) both implicit measures and questionnaires could be easily implemented in one web browser; 2) the virtual lab possesses a mature and stable implicit measure infrastructure that has been used and tested successfully by many other researchers; 3) anonymity and security in transmission of individual responses are secured and 4) large data storage is provided.

Before implementing the study, the researcher was required to sign a contract with the PI team to set up the number of studies and the time length for data collection. In the current project, the researcher was allowed to conduct two rounds of data collection.

Before each round of data collection, the researcher would be given a test link to examine and modify all the implemented research materials. The website would be valid for only one year.

The first test link to the website was sent to the researcher on 14th June, 2016. The test link is as below:

https://app-prod-

03.implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/Launch?study=/user//nlofaro/contract.qin.empathy/m anager.expt.xml&refresh=true

Figure 4.1 is a screenshot for the incompatible pairing block of the online SE-IAT. When conducting the SE-IAT task, the category labels appear on the top left and right of the computer screen to remind participants of the response key mapping rules. The target and attribute labels are in different colours for the purpose of enhancing the distinctiveness of nominal features of given stimulus. Specifically, the Liberal arts and

Science labels and items are in green while the Rationality and Empathy labels and

items are in blue. The stimulus items for sorting are put in the middle of the screen. When a stimulus item is correctly categorised, a new item will immediately appear. But when the stimulus item is incorrectly categorised, a red "X" below the stimulus item will appear and the participants are obliged to fix the error before proceeding.

Figure 4.1 A screenshot for the SE-IAT incompatible pairing block