Picture Rating with each participant's own photos from a Personal Cue Photos step: every photo is shown for 10 s, then the participant rates their craving. The difference between cue and control photos is the cue reactivity.
Picture Rating with the participant's own photos needs a step in which the participant takes the photos first. The photos are taken once and then used by every rating task in the study.
Configure parameters and run an interactive preview exactly as participants will experience it. No data is recorded.
Adjust parameters below, then start the preview on the right.
Task parameters
The photos of the Personal Cue Photos step with this photo set name, in this or an earlier survey. A participant whose photos are not on the phone can skip the task; the data then say so.
The participant's cue photos against their own control photos, as with personal smoking and nonsmoking places (Conklin et al., 2010).
Default hidden: “Pictorial cues were not present during the post-trial ratings” (Conklin et al., 2022), and on a phone the rating also followed the picture (Warthen & Tiffany, 2009). Visible keeps the picture above the scale, as in the Amsterdam Beverage Picture Set (Pronk et al., 2015).
Leave blank for the default, which the app shows in the participant's language: a single craving item on a 0–100 scale, the outcome recommended for cue-exposure studies (Kirsch et al., 2025), with the labels “Not at all” / “Extremely” usual for craving scales (Sayette et al., 2000). Conklin et al. (2010) used the four-item QSU instead; for that, add questions after the task.
Defaults: each picture 10 s (each photo of a place was shown for 10 s in Conklin et al., 2010, and pictures for 10 s on a phone in Wray, Godleski & Tiffany, 2011); each photo once and no kind of picture more than twice in a row (Conklin et al., 2010); no fixation cross and no pause (no published value). Conklin et al. (2010) also measured craving before the pictures: add a rating question before the task for that.
Outputs: as Picture Rating (mean ratings of A and B, A − B, median response time), on the own photos; with standard pictures also their means, their A − B and own minus standard. Per picture: the rating, whether it was an own photo or a standard picture, the photo set's version and the photo's brightness, contrast and sharpness, so image properties can be controlled for in the analysis (Ekhtiari et al., 2022).
This is a researcher preview. No participant data is recorded.
Simulated participant view
Picture Rating with each participant's own photos from a Personal Cue Photos step: every photo is shown for 10 s, then the participant rates their craving. The difference between cue and control photos is the cue reactivity.
No data is recorded
One photo at a time for 10 s; then the photo is replaced by the question and a 0–100 slider (no handle until the first touch, Next confirms) or numbered buttons. Optionally with standard pictures from an image set in the same task.
After a Personal Cue Photos step, to measure craving to each participant's own cues against their own control scenes, in the lab session or repeatedly in daily life. With standard pictures in the same task, personal and standard cue reactivity can be compared, as in Conklin et al. (2010).
Not before the participant has taken the photos (the task can then only be skipped), and not when all participants must see the same pictures. Like Picture Rating, the ratings are deliberate self-reports, not a measure of automatic processes.
Give it the photo set name of the capture step. Keep the defaults: each photo 10 s (Conklin et al., 2010; Wray, Godleski & Tiffany, 2011), the photo gone while the participant rates (Conklin et al., 2022), each photo once in a random order with no kind of picture more than twice in a row (Conklin et al., 2010), and a single craving item on a 0–100 scale (Kirsch et al., 2025). Add a baseline craving question before the task, as Conklin et al. (2010) did.
A positive difference means more craving after the cue photos than after the control photos. Own photos are not matched for image properties; their measures are stored per trial for use as covariates (Ekhtiari et al., 2022). If a participant takes a new set later, later tasks show the new photos; the set version in each trial tells the sets apart.
Each run of this task records how its times were measured and the conditions of the session, such as screen brightness, battery saving and interruptions. Runs with possible problems are flagged on the Quality tab and in the export.
How SMAAT times cognitive tasksAdd Picture Rating (participant's own photos) to your ESM study on SMAAT — free to get started.