Millisecond Forums

How do I add my manipulation to the Tower of London Task?

https://forums.millisecond.com/Topic18800.aspx

By Aviv Sheriff - 4/6/2016

Hello forum members,
As part of a psychology experiment, we are attempting to create an "external locus of control" manipulation.
Our goal is to take control away from the participant while he is completing the "Tower of London Task" (using the script available on the inquisit lab website) - by either introducing black screen interruptions, or by forcing options to be chosen automatically, out of the control of the participant.
Could anyone suggest some simple code to insert into the Tower of London Task in order to achieve this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated,
Aviv Sheriff, Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya Psychology Department - Sagol Center for Applied Neuroscience
By Dave - 4/6/2016

There certainly isn't any simple code that would enable this. Beyond that, your description of the manipulation is too unspecific to suggest anything concrete or evaluate if this is possible at all.

"Black screen interruptions" intuitively seem more realistic to accomplish, but you will have to flesh this out first. I.e., how often or under which conditions should such interruptions occur? How long should they last? What -- if anything -- do you want to measure regarding the interruptions? etc.
By Aviv Sheriff - 4/6/2016

Thanks for the reply Dave.
There is nothing we need to measure in the interruptions, they are merely a manipulation that i meant to create frustration and a feeling of lack of control in the participant. We are using other instruments to measure them later to observe the effects of this manipulation.
As for the "black screen interruptions" - something in the order of 30ms long black screens, spaced 7 seconds apart, starting a minute from the beginning of the first trial and lasting indefinitely (until aborted by the experimenter). This would give us time to exit the room before the interruptions begin. Ideally the participant would still be able to proceed with the task while being pestered by the black screens.

By Dave - 4/6/2016

Okay, thanks. I've attached a very rough draft to give you the basic idea (I've shortened the times a bit, so the manipulation is more readily apparent for testing purposes). You'll want to look at the additional <trial outage> element as well as the new /branch in <trial move> that invokes the outage.

P.S.: This would annoy the hell out of me if I were a participant, but I guess that's the point... ;-)
By Aviv Sheriff - 4/6/2016

Great! This will definitely have the desired effect :).
Thanks for your help, I'll keep you posted about our results..