Getting started with NeuroTask Scripting, 2nd Edition
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Getting started with NeuroTask Scripting, 2nd Edition

Create an online experiment in hours not days

About the Book

This book teaches you all you need to know to create online experiments using NeuroTask Scripting. Check it out at https://scripting.neurotask.com.

About the Author

Jaap Murre
Jaap Murre

I am Professor of Theoretical Neuropsychology at the University of Amsterdam studying memory and the brain. I often use neural network models to help understand how the brain works. I like programming and have created several systems for simulation and experimentation. Over the past years we have also conducted many experiments on learning and forgetting, both in the lab and via the Internet.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
    • Audience
    • Typographic Convention
    • Acknowledgements
  • 1 Getting Started with NeuroTask Scripting
    • 1.1 What Are Scripts and Why Do We Need Them?
    • 1.2 Scripting Psychological Experiments
      • Writing Scripts
    • 1.3 Scripts
      • The Structure of an Experiment Script
      • Your first script: A small experiment
      • Walking through Script 1.1
      • Script 1.2: A free recall experiment
      • Script 1.3: A shorter script with a for loop
        • White Space
        • Variables
        • Assigning Values to Variables
        • Arrays
      • for loops
        • Parts of a for loop: Head and Body
        • Increment
        • Declaring Multiple Values at Once
      • Script 1.4: Even shorter scripts with getwords()
    • 1.4 You have started with online experiments!
  • 2 Capturing Keys and Reaction Times
    • 2.1 Achieving Precise Timing with await()
    • 2.2 Handling Various Types of Events with Await()
      • Click events
    • 2.3 Await-ing Keyboard Events
      • A Simplified Script for a Lexical Decision Task
      • Key presses
        • I) Printable Keys
        • II) Any Key
        • III) Non-printable Keys
      • Event Properties
    • 2.4 Measuring Reaction Time (with now(), await(), and awaitkey())
      • Reaction Time in Theory (Long-hand)
      • Reaction Time in Practice (Short-hand)
      • Reaction Times with Timeouts
    • 2.5 if...then statements
      • Operators
        • Order of Interpretation of Operators
    • 2.6 More Examples with Keyboard Events
      • Shift-Alt-Ctrl
    • 2.7 A More Complete Script for a Lexical Decision Task
  • 3 Screen layout with “Box” and “Block
    • 3.1 Maintaining Experimental Control in an Online Setting: Layout
    • 3.2 Two Standard Layout Choices in NeuroTask: Fill and Square
      • The fill layout
      • The square layout
    • 3.3 Cross-Browser Layout Issues
      • Font size
      • Zooming and Text-Sizing
      • Font Type
      • Centering Text and Images
    • 3.4 The Backbone of Layout in NeuroTask: Box and Block
    • 3.5 Box
      • The Pre-set Box Called “main”
        • main” is the Default for Many Box Functions
      • Customizing Boxes
        • Box Color
        • Box Borders, Backgrounds, and Fonts
    • 3.6 Block
      • Adding Blocks
      • Removing and Destroying Blocks
        • Removing vs. Destroying
      • Example Block Layouts
      • Showing Text in Blocks
      • Showing Images in Blocks
    • 3.7 Combining Box and Block: the makebox() convenience function
    • 3.8 Deleting All Contents of a Box
    • 3.9 Using Blocks as Stimuli
      • Corsi Block Tapping Task
      • Random Dot Stimuli
  • 4 Images
    • 4.1 Visual recognition task
      •  
        • concat(array1,array2)
        • contains(array,element)
        • log(variable,label)
    • 4.2 Image linking and uploading
      • Uploading images
      • Linking images
      • Uploading versus linking images
    • 4.3 Where your images are stored
    • 4.4 Preloading images
      • The preload() function
      • Preloading is Block-specific
    • 4.5 Resizing images
  • 5 Style
    • 5.1 Style with style()
      • Chaining of block function calls
    • 5.2 Setting font size of an entire Box
    • 5.3 Queries with tag name, class and id
    • 5.4 Color
      • Named colors
      • RGB and Hex
      • Opacity and transparency
    • 5.5 Fonts and text styles
      • Font family
      • Font size and other text style properties
        • Font weight: bold and bolder
        • Font style: italic
        • Text decoration: underline and line-through
        • Font size and line-height
        • Text align: left, right, or justify
      • Top, left, width, height, and getshape()
    • 5.6 Borders
    • 5.7 Padding
    • 5.8 Preset functions versus block functions
  • 6 Survey questions with form controls
    • 6.1 Instruction
    • 6.2 Button
    • 6.3 Input
    • 6.4 Using response values in scripts
      • Return values
      • The response object
      • Feedback with
    • 6.5 Largeinput
    • 6.6 Select, radio, and scale
      • select()
      • radio()
      • scale()
    • 6.7 Check
    • 6.8 Sleep questionnaire example
    • 6.9 Combining controls with startform() and endform()
    • 6.10 Validation
  • 7 Data logging and handling
    • 7.1 Data logging with log()
    • 7.2 Data that is always logged in ‘activated’ scripts
    • 7.3 Data tables in your account
      • What a ‘session’ is
    • 7.4 Data storage and retrieval
      • Storing ‘behind the scenes’ or storing now
      • Storing at the ‘script’ and ‘author’ level
      • increase() and decrease()
    • 7.5 Working with the data tables
      • Filtering data
    • 7.6 Exporting data
      • Pivot tables, or how to make your tables ‘square’ again
    • 7.7 Logging, storing, and the ‘response’ object
    • 7.8 Deleting data
    • 7.9 Data Dashboard
  • 8 Animation and drag-and-drop
    • 8.1 Animation
      • Feedback with blink()
      • Blinking other properties with toggle()
      • Using the animate() function
      • A general approach to animation with RAF()
        • Using icons with the icon() function
        • An animation loop
    • 8.2 Drag-and-drop
      • Drag-and-drop basics
      • Dragging a block inside (on top of) another
      • Drag-and-drop with multiple drop targets
    • 8.3 Putting everything together: A simple game
  • 9 Sound
    • 9.1 Preloading sounds
    • 9.2 Advanced options
  • 10 Working with video
    • 10.1 Subtitles and chapters
    • 10.2 Advanced options
    • 10.3 Supported video options
    • 10.4 Getting the video player
    • 10.5 Showing the same video simultaneously in two blocks
  • 11 Graphics
  • 12 Pivot Tables
  • 13 Synchronous and asynchronous programming
    • 13.1 Asynchronous programming (is still possible in NeuroTask Scripting!)
    • 13.2 The waitfor .. or construction
  • Appendix
    • Background Code
    • Example Scripts
      • Corsi Block Tapping Task
      • Random Dot Pattern Recognition
  • Notes

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