Advanced Tutorial

The Advanced Tutorial is a continuation of the Basic Tutorial. You’ll learn how to use a table to create trial items, counterbalance, add an informed consent section, and more.

note

The Basic and Advanced Tutorials are a learning-by-doing introduction to PCIbex: you’ll learn how to use PCIbex by creating an actual experiment.

If you prefer learning things concept-by-concept, check out the understanding-oriented Core Concepts section!

Table of contents

Objective

In the Advanced Tutorial, we’ll create a picture matching experiment with the following structure:

  1. Consent form trial:
    • Checkbox to indicate consent
    • Button to continue
  2. Instructions trial:
    • Text input box for participants to enter their ID
    • Button to start the experiment
  3. Four experimental trials:
    1. One-second delay.
    2. A sentence plays as audio and unfolds as text on the screen.
    3. Two images are printed to the screen next to each other.
    4. Participant clicks on an image or presses a key to select an image.
    5. Trial timeout (trial ends if the participant does not select an image before audio playback finishes).
  4. Exit screen

Preview the AdvancedTutorial experiment:

Click to take the experiment

Click to see the final experiment script 
// Type code below this line.

// Remove command prefix
PennController.ResetPrefix(null)

// Turn off debugger
DebugOff()

// Control trial sequence
Sequence("consent", "instructions", randomize("experimental-trial"), "send", "completion_screen")

// Consent form
newTrial("consent",
    newHtml("consent_form", "consent.html")
        .cssContainer({"width":"720px"})
        .checkboxWarning("You must consent before continuing.")
        .print()
    ,
    newButton("continue", "Click here to continue")
        .center()
        .print()
        .wait(getHtml("consent_form").test.complete()
                  .failure(getHtml("consent_form").warn())
        )
)

// Instructions
newTrial("instructions",
    defaultText
        .cssContainer({"margin-bottom":"1em"})
        .center()
        .print()
    ,
    newText("instructions-1", "Welcome!")
    ,
    newText("instructions-2", "In this experiment, you will hear and read a sentence, and see two images.")
    ,
    newText("instructions-3", "<b>Select the image that better matches the sentence:</b>")
    ,
    newText("instructions-4", "Press the <b>F</b> key to select the image on the left.<br>Press the <b>J</b> key to select the image on the right.<br>You can also click on an image to select it.")
    ,
    newText("instructions-5", "If you do not select an image by the time the audio finishes playing,<br>the experiment will skip to the next sentence.")
    ,
    newText("instructions-6", "Please enter your ID and then click the button below to start the experiment.")
    ,
    newTextInput("input_ID")
        .cssContainer({"margin-bottom":"1em"})
        .center()
        .print()
    ,
    newButton("wait", "Click to start the experiment")
        .center()
        .print()
        .wait()
    ,
    newVar("ID")
        .global()
        .set(getTextInput("input_ID"))
)

// Experimental trial
Template("items.csv", row =>
    newTrial("experimental-trial",
        newTimer("break", 1000)
            .start()
            .wait()
        ,
        newAudio("audio", row.audio)
            .play()
        ,
        newTimer("timeout", row.duration)
            .start()
        ,
        newText("sentence", row.sentence)
            .center()
            .unfold(row.duration)
        ,
        newImage("plural", row.plural_image)
            .size(200, 200)
        ,
        newImage("singular", row.singular_image)
            .size(200, 200)
        ,
        newCanvas("side-by-side", 450,200)
            .add(  0, 0, getImage("plural"))
            .add(250, 0, getImage("singular"))
            .center()
            .print()
            .log()
        ,
        newSelector("selection")
            .add(getImage("plural"), getImage("singular"))
            .shuffle()
            .keys("F", "J")
            .log()
            .callback(getTimer("timeout").stop())
        ,
        getTimer("timeout")
            .wait()
    )
    .log("group", row.group)
    .log("item", row.item)
    .log("condition", row.inflection)
    .log("ID", getVar("ID"))
)

// Send results manually
SendResults("send")

// Completion screen
newTrial("completion_screen",
    newText("thanks", "Thank you for participating! You may now exit the window.")
        .center()
        .print()
    ,
    newButton("wait", "")
        .wait()
)