Playing sound files to completion while subjects are reacting to othert stimuli

[COLOR=black][B]Question[/B]

I found your software by searching on the web. We were trying to create an experiment in E-Prime and were having trouble so we went online to search for other similar software. So far DirectRT is working great.

I am having one little problem though. Here is what i want: program plays a sound file; midway through sound file, program visually displays a word. I want the subject to respond to the word (measure response time). All this is working fine. The problem is that I want the sound file to continue playing after the subject responds to the visual stimulus. Currently, as soon as the subject responds the trial stops and a new trial begins.

Ideally, I want the next trial to begin after the sound file is completed.

I looked in the help pages and there is says that all sound files are played to completion. Obviously this is a special case.
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[B]Response[/B]

OK, Let's say your sound file is 4000ms. You want to display a word at 1500ms from the sound's onset. You want to take the RT from the onset of the word. You want the sound file to finish. And then on to the next trial. I'll assume that if they haven’t responded by the end of the sound (4000ms), the trial will end.

As I expect you have found already, you can present a sound file with a duration value of 1500ms to create the pre-word delay you want. At that point you display a word and take an RT.

The trick will be to create a "style" for the trial where you set a maximum RT. Have you played with the style (.drt) file yet? If so, create a style with a "min-max" value of "0-2500!" That will cause the trial to procede automatically when the RT has reached 2500ms. Since the RT began at 1500ms, this will cause the trial to end at exactly the moment the sound ends.

This would be perfect if the subject never responds. But of course, they usually will. So you can add the "full" function to your RT request to indicate that you want the trial to end ONLY after the max value has bee reached--even if the RT occurs before that time. To do so, simply indicate your RT like this:

RT:57,43,full

Using whatever keycodes you like of course. I think "full" is in the manual if you need elaboration on that. There are other options that allow you to eliminate the feedback if the max time is exceeded or to have the word disappear when the RT occurs even though the trial keeps going until the max value is reached (and the sound stops playing).

Anyways, hope some of this makes sense. If you have any trouble with it, send me your input file and style file and I'll show you what I mean (maybe that would have been easier!!).