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I have problems in coding my "visual priming in a lexical decision task" experiment

https://forums.millisecond.com/Topic16322.aspx

By fash_135 - 5/18/2015

Hello, 
Actually this is my second time to deal with inquisit, anyhow i'm still facing problems.
last moth I've coded a priming lDT experiment, Anyhow the results were not sufficient because the randomization didn't work well.
I had 30 prime words, 30 target words and 30 non-words. Thus 3 text stimuli.
it was supposed that each prime word appear twice, once with the target word and other with non word randomly. and they must have the same item number.
FOR EXAMPLE: the software was supposed to pick up randomly the prime word number 9 with the target word number 9. then the prime word 3 with nonword 3. then prime word 11 with nonword 11. then prime word 2 with target word 3. (did you get my idea) 
but the randomization didn't work well at all.  (some time the prime word appeared three time with non-words ......)
so i solved this problem by doing the randomization manually. So i had two text items one for the prime words (i typed each word twice and randomized them. and the other text item has included the the words and non words mixed together.
that also led to another problem which was the correct response button. I determined the (/ and Z) as valid response but when i code the trail i determined one of them as the correct response which means that have of the words were tagged with the wrong button. so i ignored my participants responses whether they were correct or not and analyzed their reaction time. 
plz if you have a solution for that tell me I'm so desperate.

NOW i have almost the same problem with my new experiment.
i want a prime picture to appear twice once before a target word and other before a non-word in random pairs so pic 3 appears with word 3 then pic 10 appears with word 10 then pic 7 appears with non-word number 7.
but when ever i Run my script i get the message " could not locate element prime-pic"
ps: i converted my pics to .bmp extension and saved them in the same file as i saved my script. (i don't know if i have to do other things)
what i want is to start my trail with a
1-fixation point ( appears for 700 msec)
2- prime picture (appears for 50 msec)
3- a word or non word (appears for 300 msec)
4- blank shape that covers the words ( here participants can decide whether a string of letters is a word or non word)   
i'll attach my script.
i'm ignorant in computers.  

Thank you in advance.
Fati
By Dave - 5/18/2015

#1: Your script will throw the following errors:
<trial picnonword>

ERROR /stimulustimes: Could not locate element 'primepic'.

<trial picword>

ERROR /stimulustimes: Could not locate element 'primepic'.


Both are *accurate*

<trial picword>
/ stimulustimes = [0=ready; 700=primepic; 750=primedwords; 1050=blank]
/ validresponse = ("/", "z")
/ correctresponse = ("/")
/ posttrialpause = 30
</trial>

<trial picnonword>
/ stimulustimes = [0=ready; 700=primepic; 750=primednonwords; 1050=blank]
/ validresponse = ("/", "z")
/ correctresponse = ("z")
/ posttrialpause = 30
</trial>

There is *no* stimulus element called "primepic* in your script. The respective <picture> element is called "prime", not "primepic":

<picture prime>
/ items = primepic
/ select = random
</picture>

You need to fix that. Either use the correct name in the <trial>s' /stimulustimes or change the <picture>'s name to "primepic".

The same is true for your <text> elements. There is no <text> element called "primedwords" in your script, neither is there one called "primednonwords", they are called "words" and "nonwords" respectively:

<text words>
/ items = primedwords
/ select = random
</text>

<text nonwords>
/ items = primednonwords
/ select = random
</text>

The "blank" stimulus in your <trial>s does not exist at all. You need to add that.

#2: If you want to *pair* stimuli, you need to specify that explicitly. You have not done so. Instead, both your picture items and your text items are selected randomly. See the "How to present stimulus pairs" topic in the documentation on how to set up a proper dependency between your primes and targets. The refer to the attached revision of your script for details.
By fash_135 - 5/18/2015

yaaaay that solved the problem. 

what do you mean by this line:
/ select = picture.prime_w.currentindex

and there is a tiny problem.  the prime picture is not disappearing before the target word appears. (they are appearing almost together)
it is supposed that the words appear after not with the picture. (i tried two computers and the same happened).
By Dave - 5/18/2015

> what do you mean by this line:
> / select = picture.prime_w.currentindex

It means that the selection in the <text> element depends on the selection in the referenced <picture> element: Select the item in the text element that corresponds to the item selected in the picture element. That's how you set up pairs. You'll find this covered in the documentation topic I mentioned earlier.

> and there is a tiny problem.  the prime picture is not disappearing before the target word appears.

That's the expected behavior. If that's not what you want, you need to overwrite the image with a blank stimulus prior to displaying the word. See the "How to erase stimuli" topic in the documentation.