trial counter

brynhughes

Hi all,

I'm trying to add a basic trial counter to my experiment ("You are on trial X of Y"). I have read the following threads:

http://forum.cogsci.nl/index.php?p=/discussion/474/solved-how-to-let-the-subject-know-how-many-more-trials-they-have

http://forum.cogsci.nl/index.php?p=/discussion/480/solved-how-to-reset-the-trial-counter-after-the-practice-trials

I have specifically added Lotje's code from the first post to my experiment. Unfortunately, I get the following error when I try to run the experiment:

The variable 'count_trial_sequence' does not exist. Tip: Use the variable inspector (Ctrl+I) to see all variables.

item-stack: experiment[run].practice_loop[run].block_assignment[run].blocksequence[run].new_inline_script[run]
time: Mon Jul 16 11:57:07 2018

I've attached a picture of my experiment organization. The file itself is too large to attach, but please let me know if I can upload anything else to make it more clear.

Thanks for your help!

eduard

Hi,

I'm not sure whether this will do the trick, but in the loop item, you can check the box skip on the first iteration or something like that. If this doesn't help, I would add an inline_script to the block_sequence (the first item or so) and add this line to its prepare phase: var.count_trial_sequence = 0

Does that work?

Eudard

brynhughes

Hi all,

So I've come back to this project after several months. I have been able to implement a counter, and even a counter for my practice trials! Thank you to all for the help!

Unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out how to get the counter to start at 1 rather than 0. I have based my code off of Lotje's code (linked above), but for whatever reason, the following code doesn't seem to do anything on the first iteration of the counter:

trial_count = trial_count + 1

I have the following inline script at the very beginning of my experiment (before the first loop):

total = 96
practice_total = 5

# To make an in-an-inline_script-item-defined variable 
# available in the GUI (e.g., in our case, a sketchpad item)
# as well, we 'set' the variable by using the built-in 
# experiment function exp.set(). 

# This function takes two arguments: the name
# of the variable and its value.
# For more information, see:
# http://osdoc.cogsci.nl/python-inline-code/experiment-functions/#experiment.set
exp.set("total", total)
exp.set("practice_total", practice_total)
var.trial_count = 0
var.trials_remaining = total
var.practice_trials_remaining = practice_total

And the following inline script in the trial sequence

# Determine the trial count.
# The built-in counter 'count_trial_sequence'
# starts counting at zero (in line with the zero-based 
# indexing generally used in Python). 

# Therefore, we want to add '1' to the 
# counter variable you want to show to
# the participant.

# Firstly, we 'get' the in-the-GUI-defined variable
# 'count_trial_sequence' to use it in an inline_script.

# To do so, we use the built-in experiment function 
# self.get(). This function takes one argument, namely the 
# name of the OpenSesame variable:
# For more info, see:
# http://osdoc.cogsci.nl/python-inline-code/experiment-functions/#experiment.get

trial_count = self.get("count_trial_sequence")

# Next, we add '1' to the trial_count:
trial_count = trial_count + 1

# To determine how many trials the participant still
# has to do, we use the previously-defined
# variable 'total', which we 'get' with self.get():
trials_remaining = self.get("total") - trial_count

# Finally, we have to 'set' the here-defined variables to 
# make them available in the GUI:
exp.set("trial_count", trial_count)
exp.set("trials_remaining", trials_remaining)

Thanks for any help you might be able to provide! I can attach my experiment structure, or any other files that might help answer this question if need be.

eduard

Hi,

In the first part you set var.trial_count = 0. However, in the next script, you also have trial_count = self.get("count_trial_sequence"). So effectively, you are overwriting the trial count variable every single time with the count_trial_sequence variable. This variable is hardcoded in Opensesame and always starts at 0. I think if you replace trial_count = self.get("count_trial_sequence") with trial_count = self.get("trial_count"), or simply: trial_count = var.trial_count, you should be able to start at 1.

Does that help?

Eduard