Millisecond Forums

Hey Robert,

if you want the two tasks to run *completely* independent of each other, your options are rather limited. Inquisit currently does not offer multiple, independent control structures that would allow running trials / blocks of trials in parallel. Instead, Inquisit is restricted to running a single trial at a given time as well as collecting a single response per trial. Inquisit is also restricted to a single response modality per trial (i.e. it will only accept keyboard OR mouse OR response box, etc. input in a given trial). However, there might be two workaround strategies:

(1) You could sync *two* computers running Inquisit 3 via TTL signals. Each computer would then run one of the tasks. However, I don't think this would be a viable strategy for the specific tasks you're aiming to combine.

(2) If you have a skilled flash programmer at hand, one of the tasks could be implemented via flash. As Inquisit is able to handle interactive flash objects as 'background stimuli' during a block of its own trials, this could be a valid implementation strategy.

But, in sum, Inquisit currently isn't really designed to handle dual task paradigms.

Best wishes from a fellow Inquisit user,
~Dave

P.S.: The dual task issue has been discussed here a few times, so you might also want to do a forum search for additional information.

Dave,

Thanks a lot for the response. Seems that for this specific problem that I have I'll stick with normal sequential trials presentation but some of them designed to collect responses in one task, and the others collecting responses for the other. This will not be 'completely' parallel in programming sense, but for participants - yes, they're still going to handle two tasks at the same time.

Anyway - I think that from the experimental cognitive psychologist perspective the software that would allow for perfect dual task procedures is a must. As far as I know such soft does not exist - e-prime, superlab, psyscope, and inquisit are all single task tools.

True. This would be the 'standard' implementation strategy with Inquisit right now.



I tend to agree. I know that Sean Draine is well aware of Inquisit's limitations regarding dual task paradigms - and I'm sure that the software will support these types of tasks much better sometime in the future. However, I've also had to work with E-Prime and SuperLab in the past, and while I personally prefer Inquisit over any of them, I think that E-Prime actually *can* adequately handle dual task paradigms. So, if you have access to E-Prime, you might also want to go down that route for this specific problem.

Best wishes,
~Dave

Dave,

I'll definitely try E-Prime. However, not having any programming experience (except for SuperLab which is 'windows' like tool), I find Inquisit much easier to get on with.

Cheers,
Robert

Hello,

I have seen your posts oon dual-task problem. Is it possible to form two frames in Inquisit and simultaneously do two tasks (one would be time-constrained)?

Your posts about dual task are all from sometime ago, like year 2009. Was there any new way recently introduced to dual tasks? I have just started working with Inquisit but couldn't find any recent information on this topic.

Thanks in advance for information.

Malgo

No. The situation regarding (concurrent) dual tasks has not changed.

Hi,

If you are referring to *concurrent* dual-tasks, the general answer is (still) "No". Depending on the specifics of what exactly you would want to implement, the answer may differ.

Hi Dave,