The MILO-switch task : comparing online and app-based assessment

Abstract

In this study, an online variant of the MILO task was used to examine whether basic findings from previous iPad studies generalise to a new experimental scenario. Furthermore, the study aimed to examine whether the distinct saw-tooth pattern of reaction times reported by Thornton and Horowitz (2020b) was caused by chunking responses into pairs, or rather related to whether items were letters or digits. Twenty four participants each completed a Sequential block (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, A, B, C, D, E, F) and a Mixed block (e.g., 1, A, 2, B, 3, C, 4, D, 5, E, 6, F) of MILO trials, with each block consisting of 15 trials where the target items vanished when selected, and 15 trials where they remained visible (Vanish/Remain condition). The two trial conditions were randomly interleaved. The order of initial stimulus type (letter or digit) was counterbalanced across participants. Results showed that participants take longer to carry out the MILO task online compared to on an iPad, although SRT patterns were generally very similar. One notable difference was a constant offset between Vanish and Remain trials during the Sequential blocks of trials. Finally, stimulus order did not affect the saw-tooth pattern during mixed blocks of trials, suggesting this feature arises due to the tendency to chunk the overall sequence into response pairs.