My 3rd Script: Beginner Experiment
howto_userMy 3rd Script has the basic stages of a psychological experiment, organized using comments. First, it goes over informed consent. If the subject does not consent, they are brought directly to the end. If they consent, they are given instructions for the task. Then, the experimental trials take place (the word memory task from My 1st Script). After this, the subject is asked a few demographic questions in different formats (e.g. Likert scale, drop-down menu). Last, there is a debriefing about the purpose and hypothesis, and the experiment concludes.
Topics introduced: main.setfontsize(), radio(), if...else, select(), scale(), HTML text formatting
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// CONSENT
main.setfontsize(75); // Makes font smaller (75%) throughout entire experiment
radio("Participation in this experiment is entirely voluntary and you may withdraw at any time. Would you like to proceed?",[["Yes"],["No"]],"consent"); // Gives 2 options in a drop-down menu, saves response as "consent"
if (response.consent === "Yes") // If they consent...
{
// INSTRUCTIONS
instruction("This is a word recall task. It will take about 1 minute. Please remember as many of the following eight words as you can.");
// [YOU MAY WANT TO INCLUDE A PRACTICE TRIAL HERE]
// EXPERIMENTAL TRIALS
main.setfontsize(100); // Makes font large again, for the trials (100%)
text("apple");
await(2000);
clear();
await(1000);
text("chair");
await(2000);
clear();
await(1000);
text("tent");
await(2000);
clear();
await(1000);
text("bowl");
await(2000);
clear();
await(1000);
text("clock");
await(2000);
clear();
await(1000);
text("bike");
await(2000);
clear();
await(1000);
text("tree");
await(2000);
clear();
await(1000);
text("cat");
await(2000);
clear();
await(1000);
main.setfontsize(75);
largeinput("Please type the words you remember:","words_recalled");
// DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONS
radio("What is your gender?",[["Female"],["Male"],["Other"],["Prefer not to say"]],"gender");
// Radio: Your answer options appear in a drop-down menu
select("What is your age?",range(0,100),"age");
// Select: Your number range (0-99) appears in a drop-down menu
scale("On a scale of 1 to 5, how challenging did you find this task?","Very Easy","Very Hard","difficulty");
// Scale: Shows a Likert-scale (1 labeled very easy and 5 labeled very hard)
text("You selected {gender}, {age} years, and {difficulty} out of 5 for difficulty.");
// Variables in curly brackets are replaced with subject's answer for that variable
await(3000);
//DEBRIEFING
text("In this study, we are looking at x. Our hypothesis is y.<p>Press space to finish.</p>");
awaitkey("SPACE"); // Waits for subject to press the space bar
text("Thank you for your participation!");
await(2000);
}
else // If they do not consent...
{
text("Experiment ended.");
await(2000);
clear();
}
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