Creating Artificial Language Learning Experiment

jennab

Hello, I'm creating an artificial language learning experiment for my honour's thesis but I'm having a lot of trouble understanding how to use opensesame (I'm not good with computers.) I tried following the tutorials and using the templates but I don't know how to adapt them to suit my experiment. If I describe the process of my experiment below would someone be able to give me some advice on how to proceed?

1. Participant first goes through a learning phase where they are shown the singular form of an image and hearing the pronunciation, then they see and hear the dual, and then they see and hear the plural.
2. After each set is a memory task, where the participant hears a word and they must select the correct image.
3. This repeats five times with different words.
4. For the experimental phase the singular form of a new image is displayed, then the participant is shown a dual or plural form of that image and must select which audio pronounciation is correct.

If anyone can provide some advice I would really appreciate it. Thank you!

Daniel

Hi @jennab

In these cases it's best to just start and learn by trial and error, and at the same time look for someone in your department that does have more experience with OpenSesame (or creating experiments in general) that may be able to help you. Since you are doing this for an honours project, it may be expected that someone is there to assist you, I think?

Your question is too extensive to describe all the steps you should take to get to a concrete experiment. The only thing I can advise you is to check out the demo experiments that are included with OpenSesame and see if they offer some inspiration.

The first time of creating your experiment can be quite daunting and time consuming, but it will also be very educational and in the future you will be able to realise these ideas a lot quicker.

eduard

Hi,

My general advice is to take things step by step and break things up as far as possible. If you followed the tutorials you should get an idea of how Opensesame structures experiments (loop-sequence blocks).

Every phase in your experiment seems to be a closed(ish) unit. So it makes sense, to treat them separately for now.

In the first phase, you want to present visual and auditory stimuli, so you need to combine Opensesame items that are able to show visuals and items that present audio in a loop/sequence. In the second phase, you need the same items for presentation, but the response is different. So probably you want to keep them separate. However, as the combination of the two phases repeats 5 times, it makes sense to put them together in an outer loop that cycles of these two phases. Once you got that far, the last phase will be easy.

So, yes breaking up things in easy bits, will make yourlife much easier. Also, and maybe most importantly, you will learn to use Opensesame better and better while trying to do so. Once you get stuck, you can of course ask your questions here. Does that make sense?

Good luck,

Eduard