Suggestion for Designing an Task

[Ankita Verma]

Hello David,

In my experiment, I have to use three geometrical figures: a circle, a square, and a triangle which I have to show the participants for 4 sec each.

With circle and square, I want to pair it with a screaming sound that will come after 2 seconds of the shape displayed on the screen.

But with a triangle, I need no pairing with a screaming sound.

Would you please help me to design this condition in e-prime 3?

I also want to know how to make questions compulsory to answer in e-prime software.

Thanks in advance, and I'm looking forward to your kind support and suggestions.

Thanks and Regards,

Ankita Verma.

[David McFarlane]

Ankita,

Anyone on this Group may help with this, no need to address me
specifically :).

For the optional sound, I can think of three approaches offhand.

The first approach is a cheap trick. Add a sound file of silence. In
the List for the trials, add a column (i.e., attribute) for SoundFile,
and add the name of the sound file (scream or silence) to use for each
trial. Then use [SoundFile] as an attribute reference for the Filename
in the object that presents the sound.

Alternatively, in the List for the trials, add a column to indicate
whether or not to play the screaming sound, e.g., "PlayScream", using
appropriate values, e.g., 1 to play to the sound, 0 to skip the sound.
Then arrange your trial Procedure somewhat as follows:
- Figure (will present geometrical figure)
- PostFigureCode
- ScreamSound
- PostSoundLabel

PostFigureCode would contain:
If (c.GetAttrib("PlayScream") <> "1") Then GoTo PostSoundLabel
so that the Procedure will skip over ScreamSound when you want it to.

You would have to fuss a bit with the Duration & PreRelease values for
these objects, that is a separate topic.

Finally, for the Sound object you could use a Slide with two
SlideStates, where one SlideState plays the screaming sound and the
other does not. Then you would use a column in the trial List to select
which SlideState to use on each trial. This is an elegant approach and
well worth learning, although perhaps a bit beyond most E-Prime beginners.


To make questions compulsory, do you mean simply to require a response
before the program proceeds? In that case, just set Duration to
"(infinite)" and add an appropriate input mask -- please see the Getting
Started Guide.

BTW these techniques work in all versions of E-Prime -- EP1, EP2, & EP3.

Best,
-- David McFarlane