Collecting vocal response time in a picture naming study

Builder
1

OS: Monterey 12.7.5
PsychoPy version : 2024.1.1

Hi all!
I am conducting a picture naming experiment where I would like to record the vocal reaction time. Reaction time would be from when an image is presented to the moment when participants start to speak to name the image.

I have included the ‘mic’ from the response options in the builder, but the csv file I get only reports mic.start which corresponds to the moment the microphone is triggered and is active (the RT in ms is too quick to correspond to voice onset). I don’t have much coding experience, therefore use the Builder to design experiments.

Does anyone know how to get accurate vocal RTs for this type of design?

Thank you in advance!

2

I’m working on something like this at the moment. I haven’t set it up for RTs yet but here is my code (in Each Frame) to determine the background threshold (max volume during the first minOnset seconds)

micVol = mic.device.getCurrentVolume(timeframe=.1)
if hasattr(micVol, "__len__"):
    if t < minOnset/2:
        pass
    elif t < minOnset:
        if micVol[0] > threshold:
            threshold = micVol[0]
    elif micVol[0] > threshold * 2 and wordOnset == 0:
        wordOnset = t
    elif micVol[0] < threshold * 1.5 and wordOnset > 0 and wordOffset == 0:
        wordOffset = t

The timeframe parameter is the period over which the volume is averaged by getCurrentVolume. The default is .2 seconds. Longer gives you a smoother volume distribution but shorter should give more accurate RTs.

3

Thank you!
I have put your code into Each Frame, but I get this error message:

micVol = mic.device.getCurrentVolume(timeframe=.1)
NameError: name ‘mic’ is not defined

How do I define that?

4

What is your microphone component called?

5

It’s called MicImage

6

micVol = MicImage.device.getCurrentVolume(timeframe=.1)

7

Once that is fixed, I get the following error message:

micVol = micImage.device.getCurrentVolume(timeframe=.1)
AttributeError: ‘MicrophoneDevice’ object has no attribute ‘getCurrentVolume’

8

Are you trying to run this online?

9

No, on my laptop (which is a MacBook Air)

10

I’ve just noticed that you are using 2024.1.1. This feature was added in 2024.2. You could try the latest version or wait a few days for 2024.2.5