Following Instructions

Platform: PsychoPy · French · stale · 126d ago

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This task collects experimental data but does not save it automatically. If you deploy this task for your study, you must implement your own data persistence mechanism (e.g., server-side logging, database, or file export).

Description

Participants follow instructions involving different semantic categories (animals, fruits, vehicles), stimulus modalities (auditory, visual, visual-enhanced), task types (colour, size judgement), and response mappings (left, right). The design uses four orthogonal factors to investigate how the brain processes instruction-guided semantic decision-making. The experiment consists of 4 blocks of 54 trials each, where participants view image triplets and respond according to the displayed instruction. A complementary 2-back working memory task (OpenSesame) is administered before the fMRI session.

Contact & Lab

Lab

NoCe Lab

github.com

Principal investigator

Valentina Borghesani

University of Geneva

Task contact

marion.bouffier@unige.ch

Contributors

Marion Bouffier

University of Geneva

Software

Methodology

Data Curation

Valentina Borghesani

University of Geneva

Conceptualization

Supervision

Methodology

Citation

No citation available — contact the task author.

Credits

No credits provided.

Domains

Psycholinguistics

Executive Functions

Semantics

Part of suite:

Following Instructions Study

Target Population

Age Categories

young adults

Clinical Status

non-clinical

Additional Notes

Healthy adult participants scanned with fMRI

Languages

French

Run under

Engine

PsychoPy

Operating system

Any

Format

Online + in-lab

Modalities

behavioral

mri

Task Outputs

What it measures

Investigate neural substrates of instruction-following during semantic decision-making, examining effects of semantic category, stimulus modality, task instruction type, and response mapping.

Output formats

csv

One CSV per participant per block, one row per trial

Experimental design

Trial-based

216 trials

Within-subject: semantic_category, stimulus_modality, task_instruction, response_mapping

Conditions

semantic_category

animals

fruits

vehicles

— Semantic category of the image stimuli

stimulus_modality

auditory

visual

visual-enhanced

— Presentation format of the stimuli

task_instruction

colour

size

— Dimension on which participants judge the images

response_mapping

left

right

— Which hand/button maps to the correct response

Key measures for analysis

Accuracy (%)
Mean reaction time (ms)
fMRI contrast maps (category, modality, task, response)
Language ROI selectivity (Fedorenko parcels)

Recorded variables

Variable	Role	Type	Description	Unit
`trial_index`	metadata	number	Trial number within the block	-
`block_id`	metadata	number	Block identifier (1-4)	-
`sentence`	independent	string	Instruction text displayed to the participant	-
`semantic_category`	independent	string	Semantic category of the stimuli (animals, fruits, vehicles) Values: animals, fruits, vehicles	-
`modality`	independent	string	Stimulus presentation modality Values: auditory, visual, visual-enhanced	-
`task_type`	independent	string	Judgement dimension Values: colour, size	-
`response_mapping`	independent	string	Response button assignment (left or right) Values: left, right	-
`picture1`	independent	string	Filename of the first stimulus image	-
`picture2`	independent	string	Filename of the second stimulus image	-
`response_key`	dependent	string	Key pressed by the participant (1=left, 6=right in scanner) Values: 1, 6	-
`accuracy`	dependent	boolean	Whether the participant chose the correct image	-
`rt`	dependent	number	Reaction time from stimulus onset	ms

Provenance

Source: nccr-seed

Fetched: 2025-01-15

Last verified: 2026-03-13 — passed

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Source files

Full experiment code (fMRI + online + N-back)

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Additional Information

Created Date

2025-01-15

Last Modified

2026-03-13