Use practice block RTs to calculate latency SD for subsequent trials (case 6217)

Hi All,

I am assembling a DirectRT version of the Automated Operational Span Task (A-OSPAN). A sticking point is how, in Direct RT, to collect RTs and dynamically calculate a SD from the distribution of RTs collected during the initial practice block.

Why would I want to do this? Briefly, the SD is used to adjust the maximum time allowed for answering subsequent questions in the "real trials"; people who answer quickly during the practice block get less time to answer during the test trials, those who answer more slowly are allowed proportionally more time. Failure to answer within a 2.5 SD time window is counted as an error.

From what I see, response.xls files can be used to collect open ended answers for later use, but this is not exactly the same as piping RTs to a spreadsheet for calculations. As of now, I am stuck.

I would really love to complete this implementation for the DirectRT/Empirisoft community. I've seen about a half-dozen other users ask for A-OSPAN during the last year.

Response.xls files are a feature of MediaLab, but they would be a step in the right direction if you were using DirectRT embedded within MediaLab. You can use the response.xls file to calculate the standard deviation, as you want to. However, I feel the sticking point is in then using DirectRT to take that number and apply it to later trials. The MinMax values are defined in the style file, and as far as I can tell, there is no way to import new values into the style file during the experiment.

I think the closest you could do is have the practice round, then summon the experimenter to configure the second round with the data just collected.

Thanks for the quick response.
I have come to the same conclusion.

Hi Zeke,
I am one of those who are desparately looking for a DirectRT script for the A-OSPAN test. I would greatly, really greatly, appreciate it if you could share your implementation of the A-OSPAN task by Unsworth/Schrock/Engle (2005) with me.
Best, Johanna

Johnanna,

Unfortunately, as the preceding posts suggest, DirectRT does not currently have the capability to do real-time calculations involving responses that occur while an input file is running. Thus, DirectRT currently cannot do this task.

Please see this related thread on our forums for related information to your querry : [url]http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php/2430-Aospan-Task[/url].