Help with lexical decision task

Nucci90

Hi

I'm trying to set up a lexical decision task but after some research I still don't get some points (I'm new to OpenSesame and programming).
I have a list of 192 letter strings (in a txt file), of which 96 are words and 96 are nonwords. I want to present them in blocks of 24 trials where half are words and half are nonwords, but obviously randomized. I don't want the same string to be seen twice and I would like to change the order of presentation for each participant. Can I do it with the user interface or do I have to use Python? And if I have to code, is there a tutorial for something like this?

Thank you so much in advance!

Knante

Hi Nucci,

It all depends on how strict your division words / nonwords per block is. If it does not have to be exactly 50/50, you could use the GUI for this design. If it has to be exactly 50/50 the random order function in a loop is not able to do that and you will need to resort to scripting.

Cheers,
Laurent

Nucci90

Hi Laurent,

Thank you for your reply. It doesn't have to be exactly 50/50 in every block, but each word in the list has to be seen once by each participant. I'm also not sure how I could change the order of presentation of the blocks. Could you explain quickly how to go about this task? Thanks again!

Elena

Knante

Hi Elena,

In that case you can obtain a major part of the design with the GUI only. You can change the order of the trials from 'sequential' to 'random' in every loop item in the top-right where it says 'order'. The only part that you would need to use inline_scripts for would be to create the blocks (i.e. provide pause screen after every 24th trial)

Nucci90

Thank you, I'll try that!