Millisecond Forums

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agr1020 - 7/13/2023

Hi! I'm an undergraduate psychology student doing my first study this summer. I have very little programming experience and am trying to learn inquisit for the first time. I am not really a computer person typically so this has been a confusing experience. Does anyone have a basic "hello world" script I could look at? I can't find any online. Any help or tips would be appreciated! Thanks!

You'll generally want to peruse the Programmer's Manual https://www.millisecond.com/support/Inquisit%20Programmer's%20Manual.pdf as well as work through at least one of the tutorials available in the documentation, e.g. this one: https://www.millisecond.com/support/docs/current/html/tutorials/covert_attention/catutorial.htm

The basic gist of the language is very simple:
- There are stimulus elements for different types of stimuli, e.g. <text> or <picture>. These have one or more items, and define how a stimulus looks on-screen, where it is located, and how its items are sampled (e.g. sequentially or randomly).
- You have <trial> elements. These are your workhorses. The <trial> elements presents stimuli and collects a response to the presented stimuli. It determines when stimuli are presented during a trial, what the available responses are, which response(s) are correct, and so forth.
- <block> elements execute trials. They determine how many trials are run, how they are sampled, etc.
- <expt> elements execute blocks. They determine how many blocks are executed, when, how they are sampled, etc.

With that in mind, a most basic script goes like this:

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Dave - 7/13/2023

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agr1020 - 7/13/2023

Hi! I'm an undergraduate psychology student doing my first study this summer. I have very little programming experience and am trying to learn inquisit for the first time. I am not really a computer person typically so this has been a confusing experience. Does anyone have a basic "hello world" script I could look at? I can't find any online. Any help or tips would be appreciated! Thanks!

You'll generally want to peruse the Programmer's Manual https://www.millisecond.com/support/Inquisit%20Programmer's%20Manual.pdf as well as work through at least one of the tutorials available in the documentation, e.g. this one: https://www.millisecond.com/support/docs/current/html/tutorials/covert_attention/catutorial.htm

The basic gist of the language is very simple:
- There are stimulus elements for different types of stimuli, e.g. <text> or <picture>. These have one or more items, and define how a stimulus looks on-screen, where it is located, and how its items are sampled (e.g. sequentially or randomly).
- You have <trial> elements. These are your workhorses. The <trial> elements presents stimuli and collects a response to the presented stimuli. It determines when stimuli are presented during a trial, what the available responses are, which response(s) are correct, and so forth.
- <block> elements execute trials. They determine how many trials are run, how they are sampled, etc.
- <expt> elements execute blocks. They determine how many blocks are executed, when, how they are sampled, etc.

With that in mind, a most basic script goes like this:

<text exampletext>
/ items = exampleitems
/ select = sequence
/ position = (50%, 40%)
/ fontstyle = ("Arial", 10%)
</text>

<item exampleitems>
/ 1 = "Hello"
/ 2 = "World"
/ 3 = "Hello World"
</item>

<text fixationcross>
/ items = ("+")
/ fontstyle = ("Arial", 30%)
</text>

<trial exampletrial>
/ stimulustimes = [0=text.fixationcross; 500=clearscreen, text.exampletext]
/ validresponse = (" ") // press the space bar
</trial>

<block exampleblock>
/ trials = [1-3 = trial.exampletrial]
</block>

<expt exampleexpt>
/ blocks = [1=block.exampleblock]
</expt>

thank you so much this was super helpful!