Mouse click not registering online?

[lpxhs5]

URL of experiment: Pavlovia

Description of the problem:
When I run my experiment online, I get this error message:

The image file used for ‘cond2Image’ is determined by the variable, ‘actionOnset’, like so:

if actionOnset >0 and actionOnset < 0.15: #0-14
    letterClickedImage= nums0
    letterClickedTime = '0'
    if cond == 2 or cond ==4:
        dummyLetter1= nums1
        dummyLetter1Time = '0.15' 
        dummyLetter2= nums2
        dummyLetter2Time = '0.3'
        dummyLetter3= nums3
        dummyLetter3Time = '0.45'
        dummyLetter4= nums4
        dummyLetter4Time = '0.6'
elif actionOnset > 0.14 and actionOnset < 0.3: #15-29
    letterClickedImage= nums1
    letterClickedTime = '0.15'
    if cond == 2 or cond ==4:
        dummyLetter1= nums0
        dummyLetter1Time = '0'
        dummyLetter2= nums2
        dummyLetter2Time = '0.3'
        dummyLetter3= nums3
        dummyLetter3Time = '0.45'
        dummyLetter4= nums4
        dummyLetter4Time = '0.6'

and so on…
So, actionOnset is basically the time that the participant makes a mouse click during the experiment. It is determined using this code:

if cond == 1 or cond == 2:
    if checkResp == 1:
        if timer.getTime() < trialEnd:
            if mouse.getPressed()[0]==1:
                actionOnset = timer.getTime()
                tone.play()
                toneOnset = actionOnset + 0.25
                tonePlayed=t
                checkResp=0
                
        elif timer.getTime() > trialEnd:
            noResp=1
            continueRoutine = False   
            
            
    elif tonePlayed>0 and (t>(tonePlayed+trialEndGap)):
        noResp=0
        continueRoutine = False

However, the error message suggests that actionOnset remains null (it’s set to null at the beginning of the routine) and hence, a mouse click is never registered.

What is going on here? How do I fix this?

Thank you!

[wakecarter]

@lpxhs5

cond2Image

Please could you show code/components more closely linked to the error message? How do you get from actionOnset to the image file name? Have you tried logging the value?

I had a quick look at your JS code and you seem to be converting strings extracted from a list to string, which seems odd – but could be just a JS quirk.

[lpxhs5]

Hi, thank you for your reply!

Depending on the time assigned to actionOnset, letterClickedImage is set to a particular variable, such as nums0.
The image files names are assigned to these variables (like nums0) using this code in the begin routine tab:

nums = [["images/letters/zero.jpeg"], ["images/letters/one.jpeg"], ["images/letters/two.jpeg"], ["images/letters/three.jpeg"], ["images/letters/four.jpeg"], ["images/letters/five.jpeg"], ["images/letters/six.jpeg"], ["images/letters/seven.jpeg"], ["images/letters/eight.jpeg"], ["images/letters/nine.jpeg"]];
shuffle(nums);
nums0 = nums[0].toString();
nums1 = nums[1].toString();
nums2 = nums[2].toString();
nums3 = nums[3].toString();
nums4 = nums[4].toString();
nums5 = nums[5].toString();
nums6 = nums[6].toString();
nums7 = nums[7].toString();
nums8 = nums[8].toString();
nums9 = nums[9].toString();
letters1 = [["images/letters/D.jpeg"], ["images/letters/M.jpeg"], ["images/letters/P.jpeg"], ["images/letters/X.jpeg"], ["images/letters/V.jpeg"], ["images/letters/S.jpeg"], ["images/letters/Q.jpeg"], ["images/letters/T.jpeg"], ["images/letters/B.jpeg"], ["images/letters/C.jpeg"], ["images/letters/F.jpeg"], ["images/letters/G.jpeg"], ["images/letters/H.jpeg"], ["images/letters/J.jpeg"], ["images/letters/K.jpeg"], ["images/letters/L.jpeg"], ["images/letters/N.jpeg"], ["images/letters/R.jpeg"], ["images/letters/W.jpeg"], ["images/letters/Y.jpeg"], ["images/letters/Z.jpeg"]];
shuffle(letters1);
letters1L0 = letters1[0].toString();
letters1L1 = letters1[1].toString();
letters1L2 = letters1[2].toString();
letters1L3 = letters1[3].toString();
letters1L4 = letters1[4].toString();
letters1L5 = letters1[5].toString();
letters1L6 = letters1[6].toString();
letters1L7 = letters1[7].toString();
letters1L8 = letters1[8].toString();
letters1L9 = letters1[9].toString();
letters1L10 = letters1[10].toString();
letters1L11 = letters1[11].toString();
letters1L12 = letters1[12].toString();
letters1L13 = letters1[13].toString();
letters1L14 = letters1[14].toString();
letters1L15 = letters1[15].toString();
letters1L16 = letters1[16].toString();
letters1L17 = letters1[17].toString();
letters1L18 = letters1[18].toString();
letters1L19 = letters1[19].toString();
letters1L20 = letters1[20].toString();

I am converting strings extracted from a list to back to strings. I think this is a JS quirk, as before, I didn’t have .toString() and I got an error message saying that it couldn’t find images/letters/one.jpeg , etc with no quotation marks, so it appeared to not be reading them as strings.

[wakecarter]

If it can’t find the image that doesn’t sound like it has a problem with the string – that would give a Type Error.

Are your images in html/resources/images/letters?

[lpxhs5]

Yes, they are all there in the html/resources/images/letters folder. I think the issue isn’t that it can’t find the image, I think that an image is never assigned to cond2Image, though I’m unsure why that is happening.

[wakecarter]

I think I may have the answer.

I just looked at your JS code and you are defining cond2Image twice (lines 1610 and 2755).

[lpxhs5]

Thank you for your reply!

I changed the code so that cond2Image is only defined once, but sadly, the error message is still there.

[lpxhs5]

Ah, I was mistaken. So I am still using cond2Image twice, but this is because I use the ‘response’ routine twice. Once during the practice trials and once during the real trials. Would making a new response routine for the practice trials fix the issue?

[wakecarter]

Using the same routine in two locations in the flow is good practice. Creating two similar routines with identical code components which create objects is not.

[lpxhs5]

Ah, okay, so what I was doing already was right. I wonder what was causing the error message?

[wakecarter]

I’ve just downloaded your psyexp file and I can’t find the code setting $letterClickedImage

Which routine is it in?

You also have an awful lot of cond=cond, etc. which is unnecessary.

[lpxhs5]

letterClickedImage is first defined in the practTrial routine, in code_17 component (begin experiment tab). It’s set to None here. It’s then given a new value in code_18 on the same routine in the each frame tab.
The letterClickedImage is also used in the trial routine for the same purpose.

[lpxhs5]

Then in the response routine, the image files used in cond2Image and cond4Image are set using letterClickedImage

[wakecarter]

I would replace letterClickedImage=letterClickedImage with print(letterClickedImage) in the endRoutine of code_18 and then check the console. The Each Frame of code_18 is way too long for me to check, and I think is based on a misapprehension. You should be dealing with this is a loop, but I’m also wondering whether you are setting values afresh every Frame.

[lpxhs5]

Thank you for your help. I added print(letterClickedImage) as suggested. The image seems to be being set as intended. But this is offline, where things were working fine. I’ll try online - will things print to the developer console?

[lpxhs5]

Ah, okay so online, it looks like the letterClickedImage variable isn’t being set with an image file name.