[open] Action-outcome partial contingency

noamkarsh

Hi
I would like to know whether it is possible to create a response contingent outcome to 50% of trials and in the remaining 50%, outcome would appear non-contingent with a response?

For example, in my experiment there are 180 trials in which participants respond with one of four optional response keys to a red circle (a sketchpad) which immediately changes to white (another sketchpad) after their response .

I would like to have 90 random trials in which the red circle will be changing to white after random interval during the trial- independent of the response on the specific trial.

I would be grateful for any help

Noam

sebastiaan

Hi Noam,

Sure, what you could do is add a variable to the block_loop called contingent and give this variable the values 'yes' and 'no', to indicate whether you want the duration of the red circle to be contingent on the response or not. Then you add a keyboard_response or advanced_delay after the red circle, and execute only one of those depending on the value of the variable contingent. So your trial sequence would look something like this:

• red_circle_sketchpad (0 ms duration)
• keyboard_response (run if [contingent] = yes)
• advanced_delay (run if [contingent] = no)
• white_sketchpad

The result will be that the white sketchpad follows the red circle after a random delay on trials where contingent is 'no', and after a key press on trials where contingent is 'yes'.

Does this help?

Cheers,
Sebastiaan