staircase in OSWeb

P_v_Minkelen

Does anyone know how to implement a staircase in Open Sesame and run it as a web experiment using OSWeb? So without using in-line python/java scripts.

Thanks in advance.

Best,

Peggy

eduard

Hi Peggy,

So without using in-line python/java scripts.

Doing it entirely without scripting won't work, but I think you can come a long way avoiding javascript. Nevertheless, I think it is not necessary to avoid inline_scripts altogether, at least not for Osweb. The things you need to do in those scripts should be easy enough with the javascript_inline item.

If you want to use a staircase, you need a parametric modulation of some aspect of the stimulus that will effect performance. Therefore, this variable must be dynamically adapted (in a script), this is no problem though, as it is a simple assignment and therefore possible with javascript.

The bigger problem is to integrate the computation of the running performance with the rest of the experiment. But actually that is also just arithmetics, so possible with javascript. You just need to adjust compute the performance after each trial and adjust the stimulus accordingly. How complex that becomes (separate staircases for different conditions, etc). depends on your needs. Still, I think you should get away using javascripts.

I suggest you get started on it, and if you get stuck report back here, so we can try to help you.

Eduard

P_v_Minkelen

Hi Eduard,

Thanks for your response. Nice to hear that I can indeed use inline_scripts.

So, in order to dynamically adapt the variable I run into 2 questions;

1. how do I link the variable_quest_value with the duration of the stimulus?
2. which parameters should I change in the quest_staircase_init to get this working?

I hope you can help me out.

Best,

Peggy

eduard

Hi Peggy,

I am afraid we need to take a step back. From your questions it seems like you are using the staircase items/plugins. They most certainly won't work, as they are really really old and not maintained anymore. My suggestions above were intended to build from generic Opensesame items like sketchpads, keyboard responses, maybe inline_javascript and such.

Of course you could also try to make the plugin work again, but that will be quite a bit work I suppose.

hope this clears things up a bit.

Eduard