Skipping an item per trial when previous trial last value & next trial first value are equal (during a Letter Memory Task)

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Skipping an item per trial when previous trial last value & next trial first value are equal (during...

Skipping an item per trial when previous trial last value & next trial...

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WarrenL	WarrenL posted 10 Years Ago Topic Details Share Topic
Group: Forum Members Posts: 12, Visits: 102	Hi again, I've got an issue with a Letter memory task (whereby random letters are presented individually on screen and a participant has to repeat the letters aurally). The letters are selected from a pool without replacement and without repeating per trial. However, the problem I have is that the last letter presented in from any previous trial (e.g. Trial x) cannot be the first letter presented in the following trial (trial y). I've been trying to write a few expressions that will check for whether the previous-consecutive letter is the same but cannot figure out how to indicate to either ignore the corresponding letter during a trial completely, or to select another letter in the item set as the first letter of that trial (either would be fine). I've tried using expressions such as e.g [if(list.letters.nextvalue==list.letters.currentvalue)]0 but cannot think of a way for the script to do either of the above - I tried list.itemlist.removeitem but that it appeared to interference with the random/no replace setting The script is below; I've made the stimulustimes, timeout and posttrialpause as 1ms so it is easier for testing. Any help would be great - thanking you in advance again. <defaults> / screencolor = white / fontstyle = ("Arial", 5%, true, false, false, false, 5, 0) / txcolor = black / inputdevice = keyboard </defaults> <data> /file = "LM_testing.iqdat" /separatefiles = true / columns = [date time subject stimulus trialcode trialnum blockcode blocknum values.nextitemindex values.itemnumber values.itemremove] </data> <values> /nextitemindex = 0 /itemnumber = 0 /itemremove = 0 </values> <text digit1> /items = letters /select = list.itemlist.nextvalue / txcolor = black </text> <text digit2> /items = letters /select = list.itemlist.nextvalue / txcolor = black </text> <text digit3> /items = letters /select = list.itemlist.nextvalue / txcolor = black </text> <text digit4> /items = letters /select = list.itemlist.nextvalue / txcolor = black </text> <text digit5> /items = letters /select = list.itemlist.nextvalue / txcolor = black </text> <item letters> /1 = "A" /2 = "B" /3 = "C" /4 = "D" /5 = "E" /6 = "F" /7 = "G" /8 = "H" </item> <list itemlist> / items = (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) / selectionmode = random / replace = false </list> <trial letter1> / stimulustimes = [1=digit1; 2=digit2;3=digit3;4=digit4;5=digit5] / timeout = 1 / ontrialend = [values.nextitemindex = (list.itemlist.nextindex); values.itemnumber = (list.itemlist.currentvalue);] / posttrialpause = 1 </trial> <block sequence5> / trials = [1-5=letter1] </block> <expt> / blocks = [1-15=noreplace(sequence5)] </expt> Tags letter memory removeitem skip
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Dave	Dave posted 10 Years Ago ANSWER Post Details Share Post
Group: Administrators Posts: 13K, Visits: 104K	A little recursive expression would be in order here: <defaults> / screencolor = white / fontstyle = ("Arial", 5%, true, false, false, false, 5, 0) / txcolor = black / inputdevice = keyboard </defaults> <data> /file = "LM_testing.iqdat" /separatefiles = true / columns = [date time subject stimulus trialcode trialnum blockcode blocknum] </data> <values> / d1itemnumber = 0 </values> <text digit1> / items = letters / select = values.d1itemnumber / txcolor = black </text> <item letters> /1 = "A" /2 = "B" /3 = "C" /4 = "D" /5 = "E" /6 = "F" /7 = "G" /8 = "H" </item> <list itemlist> / items = (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) / selectionmode = random / replace = false </list> <expressions> / myexpression = if (list.itemlist.nextvalue==values.d1itemnumber) {list.itemlist.reset(); expressions.myexpression} else values.d1itemnumber=list.itemlist.nextvalue </expressions> <trial letter1> / ontrialbegin = [expressions.myexpression] / stimulustimes = [1=digit1] / timeout = 100 / posttrialpause = 0 </trial> <block sequence5> / onblockbegin = [list.itemlist.reset();] / trials = [1-5=letter1] </block> <expt> / blocks = [1-15=sequence5] </expt>
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WarrenL	WarrenL posted 10 Years Ago ANSWER Post Details Share Post
Group: Forum Members Posts: 12, Visits: 102	Thanks for your speedy reply once again Dave, Unfortunately I ran the script and it appears to repeat letters between trial 5 of block 1 and trial 1 of block 2, and also within blocks on occasion (see attached, block 2). Is this possibly due to the recursive expression resetting the currentvalue? I put in a values.d1itemnumber column in the data and it appears as empty which leads me to think that if an identical letter is detected and the expression is rerun, then the d1itemnumber is then blank? Again, thanks for all your assistance - its superb. Attachments LM_testing_1_2014-06-25-00-20-25-908.iqdat (973 views, 3.00 KB)
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Dave	Dave posted 10 Years Ago ANSWER Post Details Share Post
Group: Administrators Posts: 13K, Visits: 104K	Thanks for the report -- that was my stupid mistake, sorry about that. Does the (actually simpler) <defaults> / screencolor = white / fontstyle = ("Arial", 5%, true, false, false, false, 5, 0) / txcolor = black / inputdevice = keyboard </defaults> <data> /file = "LM_testing.iqdat" /separatefiles = true / columns = [date time subject stimulus trialcode trialnum blockcode blocknum values.d1itemnumber] </data> <values> / d1itemnumber = 0 </values> <text digit1> / items = letters / select = values.d1itemnumber / txcolor = black </text> <item letters> /1 = "A" /2 = "B" /3 = "C" /4 = "D" /5 = "E" /6 = "F" /7 = "G" /8 = "H" </item> <list itemlist> / items = (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8) / selectionmode = random / replace = false / not = (values.d1itemnumber) </list> <trial letter1> / ontrialbegin = [values.d1itemnumber=list.itemlist.nextvalue] / stimulustimes = [1=digit1] / timeout = 100 / posttrialpause = 0 </trial> <block sequence5> / onblockbegin = [list.itemlist.reset();] / trials = [1-5=letter1] </block> <expt> / blocks = [1-15=sequence5] </expt> do the trick?
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WarrenL	WarrenL posted 10 Years Ago ANSWER Post Details Share Post
Group: Forum Members Posts: 12, Visits: 102	Thanks Dave - it looks to do just the job, nice and neat too like you said! Thanks once more for your excellent troubleshooting Cheers Warren
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