ADD -- Addition
The Addition task presents 8 numbers one at a time, which the subject must mentally
add. The subject is asked to enter the sum, and then to indicate how confident they are
that the answer is correct.
ASD -- Auditory Signal Detection
A sequence of tones are presented to the subject. Tones are either long or short.
The subject has to detect short tones and press a key or click a mouse button as quickly
as possible.
CMP -- Line Comparison
The Line Comparison task asks "Longer" or "Shorter" and then presents two lines. The
subject indicates if the left or right line is longer (or shorter). The subject is then
asked to rate their confidence from 50% to 100%.
DRN -- Detect Repeat Number
The Detect Repeat Number task will present a sequence of strings on a monitor.
Successive strings differ by one character. During each minute, there is an experimenter
specified number of occasions when the same string is presented on successive trials.
The subject has to detect these and press a key or click a mouse button as quickly as
possible.
ENC -- Encoding and Decoding
The subject is presented with map co-ordinates to code or decode. Coding and
decoding trials alternate. Coordinates consist of a three digit Easting followed by a
three digit Northing. Each is encoded by converting the first two digits into a letter
and the third digit into a separate letter. The subject may input an answer by clicking
on the keys or by pressing the corresponding keys on the keyboard. The mapping is done
as follows:
GKN -- General Knowledge Quiz
The subject is presented with a simple question and two possible answers. They then
indicate how confident they are in their answer.
GK2 -- General Knowledge Task 2
The GK2 General Knowledge Task 2 presents subjects with a series of problems in
which they have to select one of two alternatives based on a specified criterion. In
each problem, the criterion is displayed as a prompt in the center of the screen. An
example of a prompt is "Which is larger?" (in reference to population). Following a
delay, two alternatives are displayed in the lower left and lower right portion of the
display. The subject makes a selection by depressing the corresponding button (ie. left
or right).
GTP -- General Text Presentation
The General Text Presentation Task (GTP) displays a series of prompts on the screen
and records the subject's response to each. Prompts are formatted strings read from a
file specified on the command line and can be one or more lines long. The subject can
respond by mouse or keyboard as described below.
INN -- Instruction
The instruction task displays some text to the subject for a given amount of time.
This text is usually instructions on how to do the task which follows. The text comes
from a file.
LRT -- Logical Reasoning
The Logical reasoning task presents a series of problems concerning the relationship
between two entities A and B. A proposition is displayed of the form entity relationship
other-entity. Where relationship can be one of the following:
QST -- Questionnaire
The Questionnaire Presenter is a straightforward program that presents a
questionnaire and records the answers. It does not attempt to record when, or in what
order questions were answered.
SRT -- Serial Reaction Time
The Serial Reaction Time task displays a four key keypad with a different character
or symbol on each key. One of the four graphics will be shown in a display area and the
subject must click on the corresponding key as quickly as possible. Display characters
are selected from the four keypad characters randomly with replacement. Since this
allows for sequential repetition of a character, the display colours are reversed from
presentation to presentation so that the subject can detect the onset of a new stimulus.
STM -- Short Term Memory
A series of digit strings are presented to the subject along with a direction
indicator. If the indicator is "FORWARD" the subject must enter the digits in the order
they were presented. If it is "REVERSE", they must enter the digits in the reverse
order. The digit string length and direction of recall vary according to a set of rules.
The initial recall direction is FORWARD and the initial string length is four digits.
SUB -- Subtraction
The subject is presented with an initial subtraction problem. If Toughness is
"EASY", the subtrahend is in the range 500...999 and the minuend is in the range 5...9.
If it is "HARD", the subtrahend is in the range 500...9,999 and the minuend is in the
range 12...36, with 22, 30 and 33 being excluded. The subject enters their answer by
clicking on a numeric keypad or pressing the corresponding keys on the keyboard. Each
time the required number of digits is entered the display is cleared (thus the subject
can not edit the last digit). The subject continues by repeatedly subtracting the fixed
minuend from their most recent result. No further input is accepted after the specified
duration has elapsed. The task terminates after the specified rest period expires. The
rest period allows several SUB tasks to be run with short durations sequentially in a
schedule.
SYN -- Synwork Launcher
The Synwork Launcher will run the stand alone version of SYNWORK. The experimenter
is responsible for specifying a command line, along with arguments required, to run
SYNWORK. The SUSOPS duration control will override the duration argument of SYNWORK.
The Addition task presents 8 numbers one at a time, which the subject must mentally add. The subject is asked to enter the sum, and then to indicate how confident they are that the answer is correct.
A "Get Ready" prompt is displayed for Ready Time seconds.
A set of 8 addends are generated. Each is presented for Digit Time seconds with a Inter Time delay between digits.
A numeric keypad is presented for input. If the "ENTER" key is not pressed before Answer Time seconds, the message "ANSWER NOW PLEASE" is displayed for Extra Time seconds.
The subject may input by clicking on a key on the keypad or by pressing a corresponding key on the keyboard.
If "ENTER" is pressed or time expires, the confidence scale is displayed until the subject picks a confidence value or Quest Time elapses.
The whole process is repeated until task duration expires.
Eight addends are generated for each trial. The addends are selected from the following six sets:
1, 2 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 4, 5, 6 ,7 ,8 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 8, 9, 12, 13, 14 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
Addend sets are selected randomly without replacement for each set of six trials. Addends are selected randomly with replacement.
The parameters for the Addition task are time-outs and duration (in seconds) for various parts of the task.
Out of bounds parameters are set to their closest limit.
The Addition task uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
ASD -- Auditory Signal Detection
A sequence of tones are presented to the subject. Tones are either long or short. The subject has to detect short tones and press a key or click a mouse button as quickly as possible.
Randomly determine whether a short tone or a long tone should be presented.
Present the tone. If it is a short tone, the subject has to press a key or click a mouse button as quickly as possible. A score is recorded.
Silent for the rest of the period.
Repeat the whole process until the task duration expires.
The parameters for the Auditory Signal Detection are:
The minimum duration that can be relaibly produced is 0.2 seconds. The precision is approximately 0.050 seconds. That is, durations of 0.3, 0.315, and 0.33 will all play for 0.300 seconds. Specifying 0.2 and 0.25 should reliably produce tones of 0.2 and 0.25 respectively.
The Auditory Signal Detection task uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
The Line Comparison task asks "Longer" or "Shorter" and then presents two lines. The subject indicates if the left or right line is longer (or shorter). The subject is then asked to rate their confidence from 50% to 100%.
There are two versions of this task. One is set up for pen input. The subject clicks on screen buttons labeled "R" and "L". The other is set up for mouse input. The subject chooses right or left by clicking the corresponding left or right mouse button. (This second version is named CM2.)
The parameters for the Comparison tasks are:
Each pair of lines can be used to generate four problems by assigning the short line to the left or right side of the display and by asking "Longer" or "Shorter" for each configuration.
A problem subset is constructed by selecting one short pair and one long pair of lines and presenting all eight possible problems (four for each line pair as described above). The ordering of problems is random.
A problem set consists of all possible subsets, that is, all combinations of short pairs and long pairs. Problem subsets are selected at random without replacement.
A problem set can generate numberOfShortPairs * numberOfLongPairs * 8 distinct trials. Trials are generated until the task duration or Maximum Trials is attained. If the entire problem set has been presented and time and trials remain, the process is repeated with a regenerated problem set.
The Comparison task uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
The Detect Repeat Number task will present a sequence of strings on a monitor. Successive strings differ by one character. During each minute, there is an experimenter specified number of occasions when the same string is presented on successive trials. The subject has to detect these and press a key or click a mouse button as quickly as possible.
The parameters for the DRN are:
DRN uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
The subject is presented with map co-ordinates to code or decode. Coding and decoding trials alternate. Coordinates consist of a three digit Easting followed by a three digit Northing. Each is encoded by converting the first two digits into a letter and the third digit into a separate letter. The subject may input an answer by clicking on the keys or by pressing the corresponding keys on the keyboard. The mapping is done as follows:
A series of 26 digit pairs are displayed in a row. The values go from 87 to 99 and from 00 to 12. For each trial the letters A--Z are randomly distributed over the digit pairs. To encode 123, find take letter over the 12 (X for example), and either the letter over 93 (say, Q) or the letter over 03 (say, V). Thus 123 would be encoded as either XQ or XV.
The reverse process would decode both XQ and XV to the Easting 123.
In this case, the digit pairs range sequentially from 11 to 36. The encoding and decoding process works the same way as for Eastings. Again, there are multiple possible encodings for a Northing, but only a single decoding.
The only parameters for the ENC task is whether the first trial is encoding or decoding.
The Encoding task uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
The subject is presented with a simple question and two possible answers. They then indicate how confident they are in their answer.
A question is randomly selected from the list without replacement.
The question text is displayed by itself for one second.
The first answer alternative is presented on below the question on the left side of the screen and the second is presented on the right side of the screen. Note that the question file author controls the assignment of the correct answer to the left or right side by specifying it as the first or second alternative respectively.
The subject specifies their choice by clicking on the answer text.
A confidence scale is presented and the subject selects a confidence level.
The process is repeated after a one second delay.
The task exits when the last question has been dealt with or the task duration expires, which ever comes first.
The only parameters for the General Knowledge task is the name of the file containing the questions.
The question file is a plain ASCII file which can be created with any editor. Each entry takes four lines as follows:
Question Identifier This is transferred to the result file in the record that corresponds to the presentation of the question. It is solely to assist you in analysing the results. It can be any ASCII string. Avoiding blanks and especially tabs would probably simplify analysis.
Qusetion Text The text of the question.
Left Answer Alternative The text of the answer that will appear on the left side of the display. Placing an "*" in the first character position will designate this answer as correct.
Right Answer Alternative The text of the answer that will appear on the right side of the display. Placing an "*" in the first character position will designate this answer as correct.
If both answers begin with "*" the second will be considered correct.
Note that it is the author's responsibility to place the questions files in the proper directory. Locate this as follows: Open the SUSOPS group that you will be using and click on the Dispatcher icon once. Go to the menu and select File Properties and look for the Working Directory field. Suppose that it was C:\SUSOPS. You should put your files in C:SUSOPS\QUESTION.
The General Knowledge task uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
GK2 -- General Knowledge Task 2
The GK2 General Knowledge Task 2 presents subjects with a series of problems in which they have to select one of two alternatives based on a specified criterion. In each problem, the criterion is displayed as a prompt in the center of the screen. An example of a prompt is "Which is larger?" (in reference to population). Following a delay, two alternatives are displayed in the lower left and lower right portion of the display. The subject makes a selection by depressing the corresponding button (ie. left or right).
First, the experimenter must create a file which contains all the problems for an experiment run. Each problem contains a difficulty level specifier, a prompt and two choices. The problems are grouped by difficulty level and they have to come in order. First Easy, then Medium and then Hard. This file is in ASCII format and must use .ASC as the file name extension.
Second, s/he converts the ASCII problem file into .TMP file by using the tool GKNCOMP. Notice that two files are generated after using GKNCOMP: a .BIN file and a .TMP file. Only the .TMP file is used in this version of GK2. Also, in some version of GKNCOMP, the .TMP file is renamed to .ASC file, please make the necessary changes. The GK2 task requires this file to run property.
Finally, in the third step, the Experimenter creates a parameter file (.PRM) which specifies the characteristics of the presentation. This file can be created using the parameter screen in Schedule Editor.
All .TMP and .PRM files should be located in the /Question directory. Problems can be added to or removed from the original ASCII problem file. The Experimenter must remember to regenerate a new .TMP file.
The parameters for the General Knowledge Task 2 are:
The General Knowledge task 2 uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
GTP -- General Text Presentation
The General Text Presentation Task (GTP) displays a series of prompts on the screen and records the subject's response to each. Prompts are formatted strings read from a file specified on the command line and can be one or more lines long. The subject can respond by mouse or keyboard as described below.
Read a line from the source file (see Parameters) and separate it to up to five tokens -- Format code, Modifier code, Text1, Special code and Text2. More information on these five tokens follows.
Process Format code and create corresponding effect.
Process Modifier code and create corresponding effect.
Display Text1 on screen.
Process Special code and create corresponding effect.
Repeat steps one to five, until you obtain a Special code that halts the task and causes it to wait for the subject's response.
Repeat steps one to six after subject responds until you get a Format code that terminates the task or until all of the file has been processed.
The parameters for the General Text Presentation Task are:
The question file is a plain ASCII file which can be created with any editor. Each line in this ASCII file contains up to five tokens. Example:
0<CEN><BEL>How are you?/ANSWER
Format Code is the first character of every line. In the example above, "0" is a Format code. If it is not recognized, it is treated as a SPACE. The following is a list of Format codes.
| "*" | Clear screen first and start line at the top left corner. |
| " " | Print Carriage Return, Line Feed(CR/LF) after line. |
| "1" | Cursor remains at the end of text. |
| "2" | Print Carriage Return after line. |
| "0" | Clear line after handling special code(see below). |
| "+" | Clear text1 and print CR/LF after handling special code(see below). |
| "-" | Clear text2 and print CR/LF after handling special code(see below). |
| "X" | Terminate this task. |
An optional list of Modifier codes can be placed after Format code. Each Modifier code is surrounded by "<" and ">". In our example, <CEN> and <BEL> are both Modifier codes. Here is a list of Modifier codes:
| <BUT> | Memorize the first non-blank character in Text1. When the task is waiting for the subject to respond, this non-blank character is one of the choices offered to the subject. It is displayed as a button on the screen. |
| <BEL> | Signals subject by a beep sound. |
| <CEN> | Displays Text1 at the center of current line. |
| <CLA> | Clears line above and leaves cursor at the beginning of line above. |
| <CBL> | Clears storage of non-blank characters memorized using <BUT>. |
Text1 is any text string located after Modifier code (see below). In the example, "How are you?" is considered as Text1.
Special code is an optional code follows Text1. In our example, "/" is a Special code. Here is a list of Special codes:
| "/" |
Wait for up to N characters to be typed, where N is the length of text2(see
below). These characters will be echoed. |
| "%" | Wait for a single character response. This character must be one of the characters in text2(see below). If text2 is blank, any character will be accepted. |
| "^" | Same as "%" except response must be one of the characters memorized by using <BUT> (see modifier code). |
| "&" | Wait for the time specified by text2. Text2 must be a standard VMS delta time format. If an inaccurate time format is used there will be no time delay. |
Text2 is an optional text string that follows special code (see below). In the example, "ANSWER" is considered as Text2.
Therefore, our example will mean the following: Display "How are you?" (Text1) at the center of current line (Modifier code <CEN>). Signal the subject with a beep sound (Modifier code <BEL>). Task then wait for the subject's response, which is an answer of six characters or less (Special code and Text2). After the subject responds, erase the whole line. (Format code)
Note that it is the author's responsibility to place the questions files in the proper directory. Locate this as follows: Open the SUSOPS group that you will be using and click on the dispatcher icon once. Go to the menu and select File Properties and look for the Working Directory field. Suppose that it was C:\SUSOPS. You should put your files in C:\SUSOPS\QUESTION. Furthermore, your files must have ".gtp" as extension.
The General Text Presentation Task uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the records are:
The instruction task displays some text to the subject for a given amount of time. This text is usually instructions on how to do the task which follows. The text comes from a file.
If the instruction task is not given a filename it displays the word "BREAK".
The only parameters for the Instruction task is the name of the file containing the text.
The instruction file is a plain ASCII file which can be created with any editor.
The Instruction task produces no output at all.
The Logical reasoning task presents a series of problems concerning the relationship between two entities A and B. A proposition is displayed of the form entity relationship other-entity. Where relationship can be one of the following:
| 1. | precedes (coded as 0) |
| 2. | is preceded by (coded as 1) |
| 3. | does not precede (coded as 2) |
| 4. | is not preceded by (coded as 3) |
| 5. | follows (coded as 4) |
| 6. | is followed by (coded as 5) |
| 7. | does not follow (coded as 6) |
| 8. | is not followed by (coded as 7) |
Examples would be A precedes B, and B is not followed by A.
The proposition is followed by a statement of the form "AB" or "BA" and the subject responds by clicking on either the TRUE or FALSE button.
Propositions and statements are generated randomly with replacement and are displayed concurrently. The task continues until the specified duration elapses.
The Logical Reasoning task has no parameters.
The Logical Reasoning task uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
Note that the above ordering is counterintuitive. Sorry, but it is historical and we've got a lot of data.
The Questionnaire Presenter is a straightforward program that presents a questionnaire and records the answers. It does not attempt to record when, or in what order questions were answered.
Like all PenSusops tasks it will time out after a period specified in the schedule. Typically you will want to let the subject finish the questionnaire, rather than time out. Thus you should leave a generous amount of time in the schedule. The task operates as follows:
The questionnaire will be presented one page at a time. The subject can answer questions by using keyboard or by using mouse. Keyboard user may move to a box or a slider with Tab key or arrow keys, then check or uncheck the box with space bar or change the slider value with arrow keys. Word answers is typed into edit boxes. Mouse user may click on a box or a slider.
If there is a Next Page button then the subject can flip to the next page by pressing the button. Otherwise the questionnaire will automatically flip to the next page after all questions on the current page have been answered.
If there is a Prev Page button then the subject can flip back a page, and review answers to previous questions (possibly changing them).
When the subject completes the last page the questionnaire is finished. The Next Page button (if present) will read Done on the last page to signify this. The subject can also terminate the questionnaire at anytime by pressing a "secret" task termination hot key. This hot key is ALT-SHIFT-F9.
When a questionnaire is presented to a subject the subject's answers are stored in a results file. This has much the same format as that of other PenSusops tasks. The major difference is that the header data is not repeated on each line.
The header line consists of the standard header data, followed by the filename of the questionnaire. The elapsed time on this record is the total time taken by the subject to complete the questionnaire. In addition, the last column of this header line is a word that indicates the questionnaire is terminated normally or is terminated by pressing the termination hot key. "SUCCESS" indicates a normal termination, while "ABORT" indicates a termination by the hot key.
Each subsequent line contains the answer to one question. The first two fields identify the question by page number, and question number within the page.
The last column is the subject's answer. If the subject did not answer the question then the value is "." (a single dot). If the subject chose "Not Applicable" then the answer is -9999. Otherwise the answer depends on the value of Leftmost Choice. By default this is 1, so the answers are on a scale from 1 to the Number of Choices. It can however be any value from -9998 to 30000.
The Serial Reaction Time task displays a four key keypad with a different character or symbol on each key. One of the four graphics will be shown in a display area and the subject must click on the corresponding key as quickly as possible. Display characters are selected from the four keypad characters randomly with replacement. Since this allows for sequential repetition of a character, the display colours are reversed from presentation to presentation so that the subject can detect the onset of a new stimulus.
The task accepts four parameters, a font name (which may include blanks), and the four keypad characters. The Schedule Editor provides a list of font names and displays the characters that you select (from your ASCII keyboard) in the selected font.
You should try to stick to the standard set of True Type fonts that are distributed with Windows. Fonts are not included with PenSUSOPS distribution disks for copyright reasons. Consequently, the task may produce an unexpected display if the machine that you run the schedule on does not have the specified font.
The Serial Reaction Time task uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
A series of digit strings are presented to the subject along with a direction indicator. If the indicator is "FORWARD" the subject must enter the digits in the order they were presented. If it is "REVERSE", they must enter the digits in the reverse order. The digit string length and direction of recall vary according to a set of rules. The initial recall direction is FORWARD and the initial string length is four digits.
The detailed task events are as follows:
| 1. | A digit string of the required length is randomly generated from the set 1..9 with replacement. |
| 2. | The recall direction, "FORWARD" or "REVERSE" is displayed throughout the presentation. |
| 3. | The digits are displayed one at a time for one second each with a half second delay between digits. |
| 4. | The keypad is enabled. The subject enters the digits by clicking on the digit buttons or by pressing corresponding keys on keyboard. When completed, click on the "ENTER" button or press the enter key. There are "CLEAR" and "BACKSPACE" editing keys available. |
| 5. | Subject input is aborted if they take too long. The allowed duration is Minimum Timeout + (string length - 4) * Timeout Increment or Maximum Timeout whichever is less. |
| 6. | If the subject answered correctly, the length of the digit string is increased by one up to 30. If it reaches thirty, the recall direction is reversed. |
| 7. | If the subject answered incorrectly,the number of errors for the current direction is incremented. If it reaches Error Count, the recall direction is reversed, otherwise the length of the digit string is decremented to a minimum of four and the recall direction is unchanged. |
| 8. | Each item the recall direction is reversed the string length is set back to four and the current number of errors is set to zero. |
| 9. | The task terminated when the specified duration has elapsed. |
The Short Term Memory Task uses four parameters:
The Short Term Memory task uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
The subject is presented with an initial subtraction problem. If Toughness is "EASY", the subtrahend is in the range 500...999 and the minuend is in the range 5...9. If it is "HARD", the subtrahend is in the range 500...9,999 and the minuend is in the range 12...36, with 22, 30 and 33 being excluded. The subject enters their answer by clicking on a numeric keypad or pressing the corresponding keys on the keyboard. Each time the required number of digits is entered the display is cleared (thus the subject can not edit the last digit). The subject continues by repeatedly subtracting the fixed minuend from their most recent result. No further input is accepted after the specified duration has elapsed. The task terminates after the specified rest period expires. The rest period allows several SUB tasks to be run with short durations sequentially in a schedule.
The Subtraction Task uses two parameters:
The Subtraction task uses the standard data format for the record header. The extra data fields at the end of the record are:
The Synwork Launcher will run the stand alone version of SYNWORK. The experimenter is responsible for specifying a command line, along with arguments required, to run SYNWORK. The SUSOPS duration control will override the duration argument of SYNWORK.
Starts SYNWORK from SUSOPS.
The subject will complete the task.
Go back to SUSOPS when the subject completed the task or the time is up.
The parameter of the Synwork Launcher task is a command line to run SYNWORK, along with correct arguments. Full path of the SYNWORK executable file is required. For example:
instead of using synwork1 /D10 the experimenter should use, for example, c:\synwork\synwork1 /D10
The duration parameter(/Dn) will be overridden by the SUSOPS duration control. As a result, even the experimenter has specified /D10 (10 minutes duration) as an argument, it will not affect the task's duration unless the experimenter sets the SUSOPS duration control to 10 minutes as well. On the contrary, if the experimenter sets the SUSOPS duration control to 10 minutes, while without specifying a duration argument in the command line, the task will still run properly. Also notice that this task's duration is minute-based. All duration setting will be rounded to the closest minute.
The Synwork Launcher task runs SYNWORK only, and therefore, it will not generate any result by itself. All the experiment data are recorded by SYNWORK and are stored in their usual formats.