As suggested in the title, I am trying to make a variable number of stimuli appear on the screen. Each trial I need a different (random within a range) number of squares to appear. (Five squares on one trial, seven squares another trial, etc). The trouble is I need them to all be presented at the same time.
I tried inserting a square stimuli, placing variables for the x and y coordinates, inserting a code block to manipulate the variables, and placing it in a loop repeating a variable number of times to get a different number of squares in each trial. This didn’t work because it won’t enter the next iteration of the loop until a routine is finished. This means I either have to give the stimuli a duration or choose an event to end it, both of which make the square disappear before it can formulate the next one. Is there a way for a routine to end but still leave its stimuli on the screen? Or is there a simpler way to build this so that the number of squares presented changes with each trial?
Thank you so much for the willingness to help. To answer questions - the range of squares is 5 - 9, spread between 12 possible positions. The possible positions are fixed, but which are filled is variable.
I was able to get my code to work. There is probably a more elegant solution, but this is what I came up with in case it helps anyone in the future.
In a coding element, I made a list of all the indexes for the potential twelve positions. Every trial, a randomly selected three and removed them from the list. I then created 9 squares and set their positions equal to positions 0 - 8 on the list. To allow me to have a variable number of those nine squares appear, I also made a list of opacities and set each square’s opacity equal to the matching position (0-8) on that list as well. I would then select random squares based on the number I needed (none if I needed 9 squares to appear, 4 if I needed 5 squares to appear, etc) and set their opacity to 0. This allowed me to have between 5 and 9 squares appear depending on the trail.