___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ *Self-Paced Reading (Moving Window Paradigm)* ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Script Author: David Nitz (dave@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC last updated: 10-09-2023 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com) for Millisecond Software, LLC Script Copyright © 10-09-2023 Millisecond Software ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ BACKGROUND INFO ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This script implements the Self-Paced Reading procedure described in: Just, M. A., Carpenter, P. A., & Woolley, J. D. (1982). Paradigms and processes in reading comprehension. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 111(2), 228-238. Related resources: Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. (1980). A theory of reading: From eye fixations to comprehension. Psychological Review, 87(4), 329-354. Thibadeau, R., Just, M. A., & Carpenter, P. A. (1982). A model of the time course and content of reading. Cognitive Science, 6, 157-203. Mitchell, D. C. (2004). On-line methods in language processing: Introduction and historical review. In M. Carreiras & C.E. Clifton, Eds., The on-line study of sentence comprehension: Eyetracking, ERP and beyond (pp. 15-32). New York, NY: Psychology Press. Note: Currently this program only supports left-to-right (LTR) languages. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ TASK DESCRIPTION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Masked text examples are presented and revealed word by word by Spacebar press. 2 conditions: cumulative => words already revealed stay revealed non-cumulative => words that have previously been revealed are masked again when the next word is revealed ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DURATION ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ the default set-up of the script takes appr. 4 minutes to complete ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ DATA OUTPUT DICTIONARY ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The fields in the data files are: (1) Raw data file: 'selfpacedreading_raw*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant) build: The specific Inquisit version used (the 'build') that was run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) date, time: date and time script was run subject, group: with the current subject/groupnumber session: with the current session id blockCode, blockNum: the name and number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) trialCode, trialNum: the name and number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) Note: trialNum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run; even those that do not store data to the data file such as feedback trials. Thus, trialNum may not reflect the number of main trials run per block. response: the participant's response correct: the correctness of the response (1 = correct; 0 = incorrect) latency: the response latency (in ms) list.mwstims.nextValue: current "page" number winCount: Ordinal number of the currently displayed (target) text segment (window). windowString: The current window (always unmasked) text.myWindow.stimulusOnset: returns the stimulus onset time in ms. The onset time is the point at which the stimulus is presented relative to the start of the trial. inputend: Returns the total number of characters of the current input string (paragraph or sentence to be displayed in window segments). Used to determine the end of the paragraph and initiate the selection of the next stimulus (sentence or paragraph). winStart: Start position of current text segment (window). winend: End position of current text segment (window) (parameter) cumulative Determines the moving window mode to use. If set to 'true', any previously displayed window segments will remain visible on the screen. If set to 'false' any previously displayed window segments will be remasked (noncumulative mode). Default is 'false'. (parameter) highlight Determines whether the current window should be displayed in a different color than the remaining (masked or unmasked) text in order to make it more salient. The highlighting color can be adjusted via the '/ txcolor' attribute of 'text.mywindowhl'. Default is 'true'. (2) Summary data file: 'selfpacedreading_summary*.iqdat' (a separate file for each participant) inquisit.version: Inquisit version run computer.platform: the platform the script was run on (win/mac/ios/android) startDate: date script was run startTime: time script was started subjectId: assigned subject id number groupId: assigned group id number sessionId: assigned session id number elapsedTime: time it took to run script (in ms); measured from onset to offset of script completed: 0 = script was not completed (prematurely aborted); 1 = script was completed (all conditions run) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ runs 2 conditions: Cumulative (revealed words stay revealed) and Non-cumulative (once revealed words get mask again) ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ STIMULI ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ see section Editable Stimuli ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INSTRUCTIONS ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ see section Editable Instructions ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ EDITABLE CODE ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ check below for (relatively) easily editable parameters, stimuli, instructions etc. Keep in mind that you can use this script as a template and therefore always "mess" with the entire code to further customize your experiment. The parameters you can change are: windicator A single character that indicates each display segment (window). Must be set to a character which doesn't occur "naturally" in throughout the stimulus material (e.g. '|' or '#'). Each stimulus must start and end with this character. Default is "I". cumulative Determines the moving window mode to use. If set to 'true', any previously displayed window segments will remain visible on the screen. If set to 'false' any previously displayed window segments will be remasked (noncumulative mode). Default is 'false'. highlight Determines whether the current window should be displayed in a different color than the remaining (masked or unmasked) text in order to make it more salient. The highlighting color can be adjusted via the '/ txcolor' attribute of 'text.mywindowhl'. Default is 'true'. ucmaskchar Character used to mask uppercase letters and numbers (as defined in 'list.uppercase'). Suitable characters include (but are not limited to) "-", "—", "_" or "…". The masking character may not be identical to the character defined as window indicator (-> 'parameters.windicator')! Default is "-". lcmaskchar Character used to mask lowercase letters and interpunctuation characters (as defined in 'list.lowercase'). Suitable characters include (but are not limited to) "-", "—", "_" or "…". The masking character may not be identical to the character defined as window indicator (-> 'parameters.windicator')! Default is "-".