Millisecond Forums

Setting Limit to Trial Length and Overall Test Time? (Modifying existing InquisitLab Tower of London)

https://forums.millisecond.com/Topic24529.aspx

By chunhoilauhk - 4/6/2018

Hi All,
I'm currently modifying the Tower of London (ToL) task that InquisitLab already has as a demo for an upcoming study. My coding knowledge is rudimentary at best (able to modify simple existing code), however there's a change to the code that I want to make.

How will I go about setting up the code such that after x minutes, it goes to the next problem, and after y minutes, the task terminates at where it's at? We plan on having this because we are worried about participants ruminating too long about the problems and not letting go, so we feel having a time limit would help prevent this.

Any help where you can take me through how to implement this step by step would be greatly appreciated, as I said my coding knowledge is passable at best.

Thank you!
By Dave - 4/6/2018

chunhoilauhk - Friday, April 6, 2018
Hi All,
I'm currently modifying the Tower of London (ToL) task that InquisitLab already has as a demo for an upcoming study. My coding knowledge is rudimentary at best (able to modify simple existing code), however there's a change to the code that I want to make.

How will I go about setting up the code such that after x minutes, it goes to the next problem, and after y minutes, the task terminates at where it's at? We plan on having this because we are worried about participants ruminating too long about the problems and not letting go, so we feel having a time limit would help prevent this.

Any help where you can take me through how to implement this step by step would be greatly appreciated, as I said my coding knowledge is passable at best.

Thank you!

To limit the overall length, set the test <block> in the script to the desired /timeout (in milliseconds). I.e. if you want the block to simply end after, say, 5 minutes, specify

<block test>
/ timeout = 300000
/ preinstructions = (test)
/ onblockbegin = [values.totalscore=0]
/ stop = [values.stopblock==1]
/ trials = [1=newround]
</block>

I'd reconsider lithe other change, automatically moving on to the next problem after a set amount of time. Reasons:
- It's not straightforward to implement at all, albeit perhaps not impossible.
- More importantly, this has potentially far-ranging consequences for the scoring, i.e. it's not necessarily clear how to deal with that. At a minimum you' have to fully work that out before you start thinking about implementing some kind of per-problem time limit.
By chunhoilauhk - 4/6/2018

Dave - Friday, April 6, 2018
chunhoilauhk - Friday, April 6, 2018
Hi All,
I'm currently modifying the Tower of London (ToL) task that InquisitLab already has as a demo for an upcoming study. My coding knowledge is rudimentary at best (able to modify simple existing code), however there's a change to the code that I want to make.

How will I go about setting up the code such that after x minutes, it goes to the next problem, and after y minutes, the task terminates at where it's at? We plan on having this because we are worried about participants ruminating too long about the problems and not letting go, so we feel having a time limit would help prevent this.

Any help where you can take me through how to implement this step by step would be greatly appreciated, as I said my coding knowledge is passable at best.

Thank you!

To limit the overall length, set the test <block> in the script to the desired /timeout (in milliseconds). I.e. if you want the block to simply end after, say, 5 minutes, specify

<block test>
/ timeout = 300000
/ preinstructions = (test)
/ onblockbegin = [values.totalscore=0]
/ stop = [values.stopblock==1]
/ trials = [1=newround]
</block>

I'd reconsider lithe other change, automatically moving on to the next problem after a set amount of time. Reasons:
- It's not straightforward to implement at all, albeit perhaps not impossible.
- More importantly, this has potentially far-ranging consequences for the scoring, i.e. it's not necessarily clear how to deal with that. At a minimum you' have to fully work that out before you start thinking about implementing some kind of per-problem time limit.

Thank you for your speedy reply! I'll discuss further with my colleagues and discuss the concerns you raised.