Millisecond Forums » Millisecond Forums » Inquisit 4 » Randomly assigning colors to texts

Randomly assigning colors to texts

mariela — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 06:31:51 GMT

Dear all,

I have another question in regards to my experiment:

In my experiment I have 4 blocks of stimuli items. Now I would like to randomly assign 1 of 4 colors to the blocks.

I tried to do this by defining a value label and then put the <%value.color_1%> into the elemtnes defining the text:

<values >
/ color_1=noreplace((10,10,0),(0,10,10),(10,0,10),(10,10,10))
</values>

<text A>
/ items = A
/color = <%values.color_1%>
</text>

<text B>
/ items = B
/ color = <%values.color_1%>
</text>

<text C>
/ items = C
/color = <%values.color_1%>
</text>

<text D>
/ items = D
/color = <%values.color_1%>
</text>

Unfortunately this is not working. The message list errors tells me that "Expression '<%values.color_A%' is invalid. Expression contains a syntax error."

Can you help me with this task? Is it correct to assign colors by using the value-function?

Thank you so much in advance!!

RE: Randomly assigning colors to texts

mariela — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 06:31:51 GMT

Thank you thank you thank you thank you - it works excellent!!!

RE: Randomly assigning colors to texts

Dave — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 10:58:44 GMT

> Does your syntax still apply in this situation or do I need to do something different?

Yes it does, it's the same thing:

<block myblock>
/ onblockbegin = [text.object1.textcolorred=list.r.nextvalue;
    text.object1.textcolorgreen=list.g.nextvalue;
    text.object1.textcolorblue=list.b.nextvalue]
/ onblockbegin = [text.object2.textcolorred=list.r.nextvalue;
    text.object2.textcolorgreen=list.g.nextvalue;
    text.object2.textcolorblue=list.b.nextvalue]
/ trials = [1-4=noreplace(object1trial, object2trial)]
</block>

<trial object1trial>
/ stimulusframes = [1=object1]
/ validresponse = (57)
</trial>

<text object1>
/ items = object1items
</text>

<item object1items>
/ 1 = "Hi, I'm Object1. My color is R=<%text.object1.textcolorred%> G=<%text.object1.textcolorgreen%> B=<%text.object1.textcolorblue%>."
/ 2 = "Hey, it's Object1. The color is R=<%text.object1.textcolorred%> G=<%text.object1.textcolorgreen%> B=<%text.object1.textcolorblue%>."
</item>

<trial object2trial>
/ stimulusframes = [1=object2]
/ validresponse = (57)
</trial>

<text object2>
/ items = object2items
</text>

<item object2items>
/ 1 = "Me, I'm Object2. The color is R=<%text.object2.textcolorred%> G=<%text.object2.textcolorgreen%> B=<%text.object2.textcolorblue%>."
/ 2 = "Hello, it's Object2 speaking. Observe my color R=<%text.object2.textcolorred%> G=<%text.object2.textcolorgreen%> B=<%text.object2.textcolorblue%>."
</item>

<list r>
/ items = (255, 0)
/ selectionmode = random
/ selectionrate = always
</list>

<list g>
/ items = (128, 255)
/ selectionmode = list.r.currentindex
/ selectionrate = always
</list>

<list b>
/ items = (0, 128)
/ selectionmode = list.r.currentindex
/ selectionrate = always
</list>

RE: Randomly assigning colors to texts

mariela — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 10:38:24 GMT

Thank you very much for your quick reply and syntax!

I'm sorry to bother you once again, but as I just started to use Inquisit I am still finding it difficult to apply a generalized syntax to my experiment.

Maybe I need to specify my objective a little further - because from your solution, the resulting color is defined by the elements in your list (I hope I didn't get that completely wrong) and I wonder how I can implement your solution into my setup ...

So, what I'd like to do is: I have four sets of items describing a certain objects:

Object 1 - described by 6 items (e.g. object 1 is yellow, object 1 is warm, ...)

Object 2 - described by 6 items

Object 3 - described by 6 items

Object 4 - described by 6 items

No I have defined a trial for each object with a timeout.

In my final block I defined that 28 items should be randomly selected from the 4 object trials (I used the noreplace-command).

In addition I now would like to randomly assign text colors to the different object trials. E.g. all items for object 1 are displayed in one color, all items for object 2 are displayed in a different color etc. And I'd like to define the possible colors that can be used.

My syntax currently looks like this:

<item object1>
/ 1 = "object 1 is yellow"
/ 2 = "object 1 is warm"
/ 3 = "object 1 is far away"
</item>

<item object2>
/ 1 = "object 2 is blue"
/ 2 = "object 2 is cold"
/ 3 = "object 2 is close"
</item>

<text object1>
/ items = object1
</text>

<text object2>
/ items = object2
</text>

<trial object1>
/ stimulusframes = [1=object1]
/ timeout = 2000
</trial>

<trial object2>
/ stimulusframes = [1=object2]
/ timeout = 2000
</trial>

<block objects>
/ trials = [1-6 = noreplace(object1, object2)]
</block>

Does your syntax still apply in this situation or do I need to do something different?

Thank you for your help, I really really appreciate it.

RE: Randomly assigning colors to texts

Dave — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 08:41:09 GMT

Your syntax is invalid on multiple levels -- it won't work like that. What you need to do is

(1) Set up a <list> for each color channel (R, G, B)

(2) Set up proper dependencies between the <lists>, and

(3) Set the <text> elements' color via their textcolorblue, textcolorgreen and textcolorred properties:

<block myblock>
/ onblockbegin = [text.mytext.textcolorred=list.r.nextvalue;
text.mytext.textcolorgreen=list.g.nextvalue;
text.mytext.textcolorblue=list.b.nextvalue]
/ trials = [1=mytrial]
</block>

<trial mytrial>
/ stimulusframes = [1=mytext]
/ validresponse = (57)
</trial>

<text mytext>
/ items = ("R=<%text.mytext.textcolorred%> G=<%text.mytext.textcolorgreen%> B=<%text.mytext.textcolorblue%>")
</text>

<list r>
/ items = (255, 0)
/ selectionmode = random
</list>

<list g>
/ items = (128, 255)
/ selectionmode = list.r.currentindex
</list>

<list b>
/ items = (0, 128)
/ selectionmode = list.r.currentindex
</list>

The colors in the above example are (255,128,0) and (0, 255, 128).