Options: Generator

Within this tab, you can set the following settings.

Order of presentation of stimuli:

Exactly as it is in Stimulus list. If you select this option, the stimuli will have a sequence exactly identical to those in the Stimulus list.
Randomly shuffle all stimuli. All stimuli in the Stimulus List are completely randomized. Randomly permutes the specified list using a default source of randomness. All permutations occur with approximately equal likelihood.
Randomly shuffle within Reaction. If you select this option, the order of reactions follows Stimulus List but the stimuli within each reaction are randomly intermixed. So, all stimuli belonging to Reaction 1 (if they exist) are displayed first, then followed by all stimuli belonging to Reaction 2 (if they exist). Stimuli belonging to the last used Reaction are displayed last. But, within each Reaction, the stimuli are randomly intermixed. That's the difference between the first option and this one. In the first option, the stimuli within each Reaction completely follow the order in the Stimulus List.

Do not forget that the setting: Number of repetitions of this stimulus affects the total number of repetitions of each stimulus in the final Stimulus List. You can adjust this setting by double-clicking on the selected Stimulus within the Stimulus list.

Forbidden (error) keys:

Any key. If you select this option, any pressed keyboard key except correct key is error.
All other 9 Reactions.If the user presses any Correct key that is defined for Reactions 1..Reactions 10, and that stimulus does not belong to that particular Reaction, an error will be associated with that stimulus. For example, if you use the default correct keys (1..9 + 0) for 10 Reactions: a stimulus belonging to Reaction 3 is displayed, but the user presses the 8 key, an error will be generated, regardless of whether Reaction 8 is used or not (see next option).
Each of the used Reactions. A stimulus-specific error is generated only if the user presses one of the correct keys, but only for the used Reactions in research. For example, if you use only these 3 reactions: Reaction4 (the correct key is defined as "M"), Reaction6 (the correct key is defined as "N") and Reaction9 (the correct key is defined as "P"). At some point, a stimulus belonging to Reaction6 is presented. If the user presses the M or P key, an error (0 points) will be generated. Of course, if the user presses the N key, it will be a correct reaction (1 point). All other keyboard keys are ignored. The difference between this and the previous option is that unused Reactions are ignored.

The first option is the strictest, the last option is the mildest.

Note that the user may press more than one keyboard key when a single stimulus is presented. The application continuously monitors all keystrokes, and if any keyboard key is pressed that meets the above criteria for an incorrect response, an error (0 points) is automatically assigned to that stimulus.

As for the correct reaction, the reaction time for the first correct key press is always counted. This application uses the "key pressed" event. This event is generated when a keyboard key is pushed down. See KEY_PRESSED here. The user does not have to release the key on the keyboard for the reaction time to be registered. If at any time after the start of the time trigger the user presses any key that meets the error criteria above, that stimulus is assigned 0 points.

Visual Thread priority

Visual Thread is responsible for displaying visual stimuli (images). It is also the parent Thread for Audio thread objects.

A thread is a thread of execution in a program. The Java Virtual Machine allows an application to have multiple threads of execution running concurrently. Every thread has a priority. Threads with higher priority are executed in preference to threads with lower priority. Note that Thread Priority Changes can sometimes have the opposite effect than desired. The set default settings (Normal priority 5) are suitable for most research designs.

Audio Threads priority

Audio Thread is responsible for playing audio (wav) files. If you are not using audio files in your research, this option is completely irrelevant. In most cases, it is not recommended to set a higher priority level of the Audio Thread than the priority level of the Visual (Main) Thread.

If you do not want to save the changed settings within the Option Window, you must explicitly click on the Cancel button when closing this window. Closing this window with "x" (Close) or Save and Close , automatically saves all (changed) values.