Accuracy in avoiding unintentional doping (a sorting task for any mobile/computer device)
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The Canned-Beverage Sorting Task is an objective assessment of athletes’ accuracy in the avoidance of inadvertent/unintentional doping. The completion of this Canned-Beverage Sorting Task can be done via a computer or a smartphone with a web browser installed. The task has been developed based on the concept of unintentional doping and the natural experiment that evaluates athletes’ awareness of this issue (Chan et al., 2015). This Canned-Beverage Sorting Task is a new tool that translates the previous assessment of athletes’ awareness of unintentional doping into an online assessment tool that focuses on athletes’ accuracy in avoiding unintentional doping (Chan et al, 2025). In the study of Chan et al. (2025), athletes’ accuracy in avoiding unintentional doping was measured by this tool, and the scores were shown to be significantly and negatively associated with athletes’ implicit attitude towards doping. In short, the scoring of this task reflects the extent to which athletes accurately identify the canned-beverages that contain banned performance-enhancing substances or not, and whether or not they can correctly avoid the canned-beverages that do not display clear ingredient lists (which may bear a significant risk of unintentional doping).
*Participants (and researchers) should read the Task Overview and Procedure below before undertaking the Canned-Beverage Sorting Task
Task overview
In this task, participants will be shown images of canned-beverages. Based on the ingredients list (or absence of) each canned-beverage, participants then determine whether the presented beverage can be consumed or cannot be consumed.
After sorting all 32 canned-beverages, participants will have instant feedback on their score and can download the relevant Excel file (CSV file) for data storing.There are a total of 8 variations of canned-beverages, each of which will be shown 4 times, resulting in 32 items.
Task procedure
1. Participants should familiarize themselves with the following pictures of canned-beverages (Figure 1) and the classification guidelines.
1. The following canned-beverage cannot be consumed and should be labelled as “cannot drink”
- Canned-beverages without a clear ingredients list
- Canned-beverages containing banned-performance enhancing substances (Stimuli, EPO, Narcotics and Steroids, Human Growth Hormone)
The following canned-beverage can be consumed and should be labelled as “can drink”
- Canned-beverages that do not contain banned-performance enhancing substances (contains only the following: Minerals, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Lemon Juice, Glucose, Artificial Flavor, Water
2. Prior to the start of the task, participants will be given an option to complete a practice trial in order to familiarize themselves with the stimuli and the task. Participants can click “skip” at any time to proceed to the test trial.
3. Each question starts with a single, random canned-beverage displayed in the middle of the screen. Participants can then determine whether the presented canned-beverage can be consumed (“can drink”) or not (“cannot drink”) based on the classification guidelines above. Participants can also zoom in on the canned-beverage to have a closer look at the ingredients list.
- For computers users, double click or scroll to zoom-in/out on the picture
- For smartphone users, please use the pinching motion to zoom-in/out on the picture
4. To categorize the stimuli, users can simply press the left or right “buttons”.
- For computer users, please use the arrows “←” and “→” to respond.
- For smartphone users, please touch left/right boxes on the screen to respond.
5. After sorting all 32 stimuli in the test trial, a total test score will be displayed on the screen. A test ID will also be generated at the end of the trial so that researchers may retrieve and download the raw data (in CSV file via the home page of the tool) for record and/or further analysis.
*Note: Time/date on the csv file is in the Hong Kong time zone. Image names correspond to the above Figure 1.How do we calculate the score in this online tool?
The automatic score generated at the end of the test trial is the sum of correct answers. In addition to the automatically generated the result, we also provide raw data for those who want to do their own scoring/data cleaning. Participants can also revisit their previous scores/spreadsheet by entering their test ID on the home page.
What does the score mean?
There can be a maximum of 32 points for the current task. A higher score indicates greater accuracy in correctly identifying whether each presented canned-beverage can or cannot be consumed base on its ingredients list.
References: Chan, D. K. C., Yip, L. M. H., Tang, T. C. W., Yung, P. S.-H., Gucciardi, D. F., & Hagger, M. S. (2025). Implicit doping attitude and athletes' accuracy in avoiding unintentional doping when being offered beverages with banned performance-enhancing substances. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2025.04.009 |