OS (e.g. Win10): Win 10 PsychoPy version (e.g. 1.84.x): 1.85.2 Standard Standalone? (y/n) y
I have a list of 96 prime-target pairs for lexical decision. Presenting these in a random order is no problem at all, but the poor participants are bombarded with these things and I don’t want them to get fatigued. Hence I would like to present 3 x 32 prime-target pairs separated by breaks.
I can get PsychoPy to present 3 x 32 trials with breaks in between BUT there is a distinct possibility that the same prime-target pair may be presented in more than one block, with the result that some trials appear more than once while others do not appear at all. In essence what I want to achieve is the following:
Block 1: randomly select any 32 from 96 trials and present them. After the 32nd trial, give the participant a break
Block 2: randomly select any 32 from the 64 trials that haven’t been used so far and present them. Then give the participant another break
Block 3: present the remaining 32 trials in a random order. End.
I am new to PsychoPy (though for the most part I have found it very accessible and intuitive, so thank you!) and I am not familiar with coding in Python either. I apologise if this is a really simple fix and I’m just being silly.
Well, below is a quick code snippet to show you how a tiny bit of Python can go a long way…
You don’t need to break your trials into blocks. The easiest arrangement to have here is a single loop surrounding your trial routine so that it will run all 96 trials in random order. What you can then have is a pause routine that interrupts that single loop, but only on trials 32 and 64.
i.e. insert a new routine. Just put a text stimulus on it saying something like “Take a break. Then press any key to continue.” Set it to last indefinitely (i.e. don’t give it a duration). Insert a keyboard component too, also set to last indefinitely and to force the end of the routine. The trick is to use a tiny bit of code that will only let this routine appear on the two specified trials. So insert a code component. In its Begin routine tab, put something like the code below. I’m assuming your loop is called trials. If it is called something else, use that name instead. Also, remember that Python is zero-based, so we will insert the pause after trials 31 and 63:
# Conditionally execute this pause routine:
if not trials.thisN in [31, 63]: # on most trials:
continueRoutine = False # don't even start this routine
Hello.
This solution works fine for me in Psychopy on my local computer, but when I try it out on Pavlovia it doesn’t work – the text stimulus I show participants to indicate the rest break shows up between every trial, not just at the specified break/pause points. Any suggestions on how to correct this?
The suggested code is in Python. Python doesn’t run in a browser, so to use your experiment online, you need to provide a JavaScript version. In your code component, select the “Auto -> JS” option, which will try to automatically translate the Python to JavaScript.
You might still need to manually tweak it further, if the auto-translation doesn’t get it right.