Wisconsin card sorting test

Tue Aug 31 21:31:29 UTC 2010

Oh, forgot to say, if interested then please contact me directly by 
e-mail (off the list).

Thanks,
David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder

>For those of you who might not read beyond the first line:  I will 
>write a professional quality WCST in EP for no charge, if I can only 
>get a bit of help.  Read on if interested...
>
>Well, despite the reservations I expressed earlier, on my own time I 
>went ahead and threw together a working skeleton in EP for the WCST, 
>just to flex my E-Prime muscles.  The basic control logic is really 
>quite simple, and with a couple of tricks (e.g., nested attribute 
>references) the E-Prime design is rather sleek.
>
>I would like to complete this project to my usual professional 
>standards and then submit it for inclusion in the public STEP 
>library so that everyone can use it.  In short, I aim to make this 
>no less than a completely faithful computerized replica of the 
>standardized test, in EP.  But to do that I will need many more 
>specific details on the mechanics of the standardized test.  E.g., I 
>have been told that the standardized test presents the "response" 
>cards in the same pre-ordained sequence for each run, and I need to 
>know that sequence.  Also, if I can get hold of the scoring rules 
>then I might even have a whack at that, although I think it enough 
>just to have the program administer the test & record raw data.  (It 
>would also be nice if I could get someone else to do the card 
>graphics, as I am lousy at graphics -- I would need only 16 image 
>files, not all 64, since I know how to make EP change the 
>colors.)  I should be able to learn all I need from the official 
>WCST Manual, with perhaps a look at a printed card deck.  But a 
>manual costs $115, and a card deck $170, more than I care to spend 
>for something that is, for me at least, only a hobby project.
>
>So here's the deal:  If any of you can help me get access to 
>materials that fully specify the mechanics of the test (ideally the 
>printed Manual and/or cards) then I will complete this project in 
>short order and you will all have a professional quality WCST in EP.
>
>-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder
>
>
>At 8/23/2010 05:24 PM Monday, David McFarlane wrote:
>>Well, I toyed with the idea of making a simple WCST in E-Prime just 
>>to amuse myself.  But when I looked into it further, I got puzzled.
>>
>>The WCST started off with simple printed materials administered 
>>manually by a human examiner.  Clearly the WCST does not require 
>>millisecond precision.  So if we simply want to automate it, why 
>>use such an expensive, specialized, and heavyweight platform as 
>>E-Prime?  Wouldn't it make more sense to use some more common 
>>platform such as JavaScript, or Flash, or Python, or even straight 
>>Visual Basic?  Note that the WCST was automated using simple Turbo 
>>Basic (for DOS?) as far back as 1996.  Isn't this another case of, 
>>"When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a 
>>nail"  Or, insofar as I have not kept up with the literature on the 
>>WCST, am I just missing something that is obvious to the rest of you?
>>
>>Also, apparently scoring the test is quite complex (perseverative 
>>errors, nonperseverative errors, etc.), so building that into the 
>>program (as opposed to leaving that to later data analysis) would 
>>take some care.
>>
>>Finally, did anyone else know that the term "Wisconsin Card Sorting 
>>Test" was trademarked by Wells Printing and Digital Services of 
>>Madison, Wisconsin, USA (see 
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_card_sort )?  So we cannot 
>>give the name "Wisconsin Card Sorting Test" to any printed 
>>materials that we produce, but since the trademark does not cover 
>>computerized versions we may continue to use the name "Wisconsin 
>>Card Sorting Test" for our computerized versions.
>>
>>With all that said, note that someone did make an automated WCST 
>>demo for Inquisit's Millisecond 
>>(http://www.millisecond.com/download/samples/v3/CardSort ), though 
>>I do not know what data it stores or how it handles the test scoring.
>>
>>-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder
>>
>>
>>At 8/20/2010 12:10 PM Friday, David McFarlane wrote:
>>>As far as I can tell no one has made an E-Prime WCST available on 
>>>the Web.  It would be quite interesting to make one.  As I recall, 
>>>in essence the task involves operantly rewarding the subject for 
>>>correctly following an undisclosed rule, changing the rule 
>>>whenever the subject achieves an overall success criterion, and 
>>>seeing how well the subject can adapt to the changing rules.  This 
>>>would require some interesting code in E-Prime, in particular 
>>>scoring the success rate and then changing the "correct" rule on 
>>>the fly, but it could be done.  Wish I had the liberty to do it myself.
>>>
>>>-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder

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