Task duration

[Marcel Daamen]

Hi,

a practical question:

We are considering to use the MST in an acute intervention study where task duration is an issue because we want to examine short-lived effects.

The MST homepage states that the expected task duration is about 15 minutes: Does this estimate refer to the full study-test version with 64 items, that is to say, task duration would be shorter e.g. for the 32-item version?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Marcel

[Shauna Stark]

Yes, that time estimate is to run the full 64-item version with study, break for instructions, and full test session. You can shorted the duration by presenting fewer items. Feel free to download a free version and test it out with the 32 or 24-item versions (https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/starklab/mnemonic-similarity-task-mst/). These shorter versions have proven to provide reliable estimates of recognition and lure discrimination, comparable to the 64-item version (Stark et al., Behavioral Neuroscience, 2015), but they do not provide enough lure items to break out performance by lure bin similarity.

I hope this helps!

Shauna