[solved] Control of the stimulus feature repetition in consecutive trials

Boris_R

Dear all,

I prepare the Stroop task experiment,where different words appear in four different colors.
I want to eliminate the repetition of the color in consecutive trials.
To achieve this, I tried the following:

1. Using a build-in "repeat_cycle" plug-in, and its fine. But it seems to have a bug. If it must to repeat the last cycle it won't do it, it just freezes...

2. I also tried using an in-line script like the one below, but it also doesn't work. It freezes already on the first usage.

exp.items['trialsequence'].prepare()
exp.items['trialsequence'].run()

Do you have any ideas how can I not allow to the color to be repeated from trial to trial?

Thank you and best regards,

Boris.

drorgarbi

hi

I don't know why it freezes but you can try this way:

1. look at the pic for the exp structure
   
2. put the two inline script
   http://pastebin.com/mX8b5B6w
3. decide how many trails in each block be setting the cycle loop

enjoy
dror

Boris_R

Di Dror,

Thank you for the response and an idea!
Unfortunately, this kind of solution will not work for me. I didn't mentioned it previously, but I have to dis-balance the proportion of colors.
As I see it now, the implementation of your idea on this particular case will enable repetition of the color in consecutive trials.

Thanks,
Boris.

sebastiaan

Hi Boris,

The issue of pseudo-randomization has come up a few times before on this forum. There are some tools available to prepare a pseudo-random list beforehand, or you can use some scripting to accomplish this in OpenSesame.

For relevant discussions, see:

• http://www.cogsci.nl/forum/index.php?p=/discussion/310/solved-pseudorandom-with-lexical-decision
• http://forum.cogsci.nl/index.php?p=/discussion/80/open-pseudorandom-order

Cheers!
Sebastiaan

Boris_R

Thanks! It was very helpful.

However, when I am trying to save my 'stimulus', 'color', and 'correct response' list into the external 'csv' file using following piece of code, it doesn't work (it works in Spyder):

import csv

myfile = open('test.csv', 'wb')
wr = csv.writer(myfile)
wr.writerow(['word', 'color', 'cr'])
for ii in range(len(final_list)):
    wr.writerow(final_list[ii])
myfile.close()

Any ideas?

Thanks and best regards,
Boris.

sebastiaan

Hi Boris,

An actual error message or description of what doesn't work would be helpful!

Cheers,
Sebastiaan

lvanderlinden

Hi Boris,

Why would you want to log your variables manually, rather than by appending a logger item to the end of your trial sequence?

About your Python code: you didn't define the variable 'final_list' before using it. Could that be it?

Best,

Lotje

Boris_R

Hi Sebastiaan and Lotje,

First of all, my experiment is working in OpenSesame without any error message. In this particular experiment I have two inline_scripts: one before the first loop and another in the sequence (both of them in prepare stage). Please see the first one here, and the second one here.
The problem is that any test_1.csv (as it defined in the first script) file is saving... On the other hand, it works like it should to work with an external Python IDE (Spyder).

Regarding the question why I am interesting in this, this way I have the ability to do more precise debugging of my experiment. And of course I am using the logger.

lvanderlinden

Hi Boris,

Thanks for providing us with your inline scripts, that really helped!

I think the "test_1.csv" file is saved in your Home folder. Could that be it? To save it in another directory:

import os
dst = os.path.join("/home/lotje/OpenSesame/Scripts", "test_1.csv")
myfile = open(dst, 'wb')

Does that help?

Cheers,

Lotje

Boris_R

Thanks a lot Lotje!

Indeed it is a case
Is it possible to get current folder (the one with the experiment), in order to save there the 'test_1.csv'?

lvanderlinden

Hi Boris,

Yes, that's possible!

import os
currentPath = self.get('experiment_path')
dstPath = os.path.join(currentPath, "my_output.csv")
myfile = open(dstPath, 'wb')

Cheers,

Lotje

Boris_R

Thanks a lot! It works like charm