make an object move toward/ away from a stimulus with random position (case 32949)

[thenamegame]

Hello everyone,

We would like to conduct a joystick-experiment where participants are told to move a manikin on the screen toward (approach) or away (avoidance) from a stimulus (= a name) by moving the joystick to the applicable direction (left or right). The manikin is supposed to be placed at the center of the screen while we want the names to appear left or right to the manikin in a randomized manner. The manikin should then move to the left or to the right according to the participants’ joystick movement while the name should still be visible on the screen. The participants should be able to control and observe the manikin avoiding or approaching the names according to their decisions.

Is there a way to make the manikin move in accordance with participants’ joystick movements while randomizing the positions of the names and keeping them presented until a trial is over?

I’ve attached a pdf to illustrate how we’d like the experiment to look like.

We would be very grateful for any support - thank you so much in advance!

[jason_reed]

Thank you for contacting Empirisoft Support with this inquiry. DirectRT has a number of functions that should support this particular research project design. I will do my best to detail them with references to appropriate sections of the DirectRT instruction manual, but please feel free to send us any further questions.

"Movement" of the figure can be accomplished by using a .bmp image of the figure in your trials. You can program DirectRT to present it in a trial and then use the appropriate keycodes for moving a joy left or right to present it on the corresponding side of the screen. You can find information about the relevant DirectRT functions here in the instruction manual:

Use of image files as stimuli: http://empirisoft.com/directrt/help/directrt_stim.htm#image

Placement of stimuli: http://empirisoft.com/directrt/help/directrt_loc_stimulus_location.htm

Keycodes for joystick movement: http://empirisoft.com/directrt/help/directrt_key_codes.htm

Example file using joystick input: http://empirisoft.com/directrt/help/directrt_samples_of03_joystick_and_mouse_input.htm

Placement and randomization of the names is also possible in DirectRT. You can create what is known as a stimlist of your names and then tell DirecRT to randomly select one name from that list to show on the screen. The placement of the stimuli would be accomplished in the .csv input file by a combination of referring to the name of the stimlist in the stim cell and use of the location cell in a given row of the .csv input file.

Use of stimlists: http://empirisoft.com/directrt/help/directrt_stim.htm

Placement of stimuli: http://empirisoft.com/directrt/help/directrt_loc_stimulus_location.htm

Example of using multiple stimuli on a single screen: http://empirisoft.com/directrt/help/directrt_samples_compound_screens.htm

Hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any other questions or would like to to try a free 21-day trial of DirectRT.

Best,

Empirisoft Support