[solved] Random presentation of pictures and words in an experiment

hmarteli

Hi!

I'm creating an IAT with OpenSesame, and I'm wondering what would be the best way to present pictures and words in a random order? Right now it works okay when presenting only pictures (in a sketchpad using [variable].png) or only words ([variable]), but not when I have both types of stimuli in the same list of variables. In addition, I would need only the words to be presented with a simultaneous sound recording of the word, because the participants in my experiment will be children.

Thanks in advance!

sebastiaan

Hi,

First off, there is an IAT on the standard-tasks page, so you might be able to use this as a starting point:

• http://osdoc.cogsci.nl/standard-tasks/

Regarding your specific question. You could create a variable stim_type (say), and give this the value 'word' for trials on which you want to present a word, and the value 'picture' for trials on which you want to present a picture. You can then use show-if statements in your sketchpad to determine which elements are shown, depending on the value of stim_type.

So:

[stim_type] = word

... for the text element of the sketchpad, and

[stim_type] = picture

... for the picture element.

Does that help at all?

Cheers,
Sebastiaan

hmarteli

Hi!

Thanks for your answer, it helped and the problem is now solved!

I was actually already using the template, but thanks for that tip also! I created the stim_type variable, but the program still did not show the stimuli as pictures. Therefore I added an additional picture variable for the picture stimuli. After this I added all pictures to the sketchpad and used the show_if statements so that only the right one is showed for each variable.

I still have to figure out how to write an inline script so that the program would remember which word/picture it has shown and be able to show it again. I think I have found some answers here on the forum that will help me get started with that.

Thanks a lot for the support!

Cheers,
Heidi

hmarteli

Hi again!

I'm wondering about a few things regarding the inline scripts. Is it possible to combine a script with the variables defined in the loop? I noticed that you had used inline scripts for defining the variables instead of filling in them in the loop in one of your examples (http://forum.cogsci.nl/index.php?p=/discussion/11/solved-randomly-drawing-items-from-the-file-pool/p). I'm very unfamiliar with coding and would like to use as little scripts as possible. I have now tried to figure out how to write the inline script by looking at the script view of the loop and the sketchpad.

I would need the program to a) remember the last item shown (which is randomly drawn from the pool of variables) and b) present the same item again immediately after an incorrect answer until it is answered correctly. Do you have any tips on what the easiest way to solve this problem would be?

Thanks again!

Cheers, Heidi

sebastiaan

I would need the program to a) remember the last item shown (which is randomly drawn from the pool of variables) and b) present the same item again immediately after an incorrect answer until it is answered correctly. Do you have any tips on what the easiest way to solve this problem would be?

You could use the repeat_cycle plug-in, and set its repeat-if statement to [correct] = 0. This assumes, of course, that you have specified a correct response, so that the correct variable is automatically set.

This plug-in will repeat the to-be-repeated cycle at a random point during the remainder of the cycles. So it's basically put back and reshuffled. Is that an acceptable solution?

Alternatively, you could add the following script to the end of the trial, in the run phase of an inline_script item:

if self.get('correct') == 0:
    exp.items['trial_sequence'].prepare()
    exp.items['trial_sequence'].run()

This will keep restarting trial_sequence until a correct response was collected. Of course, you would need to change 'trial_sequence' to the name of the sequence that corresponds to a trial in your experiment. Does that make sense?

Cheers,
Sebastiaan

hmarteli

Hi,

I used the inline script you suggested and now everything works! Thank you so much for the help!!

Cheers,
Heidi

CharWes

Hello,

I was just wondering what your script looked like Heidi as I am also struggling to re-present an incorrect stimulus straight after until the correct answer is given.

Thanks!

hmarteli

Hi!

For sequence Parent1Parent2_Seq the script looked like this:

if self.get('correct') == 0:
exp.items["Parent1Parent2_Seq"].prepare()
exp.items["Parent1Parent2_Seq"].run()

This repeats the stimulus that was answered incorrectly. Have you tried a similar inline script-item with your own sequence-names in the run-phase of the script? I simply put a separate error-sketchpad after the response-item, and this inline script after that. And by using "show if" statements I chose these not to be shown when the initial response was correct!

Does this help at all?

Cheers, Heidi