Introducing Linger

1
Introducing Linger

• LabSyntax, 03/06/06
• Florian Jaeger

2
Starting

• Usually you start experiments through the linger
  executable
• Choose an experiment
• If there is no reason to overwrite data, accept
  the default subject-ID
• Lingers documentation is excellent
• http//tedlab.mit.edu/dr/Linger/readme.html

3
Several RT paradigms

• Self paced vs. auto-pace X moving window vs.
  centered

4
Structure of experiments

• Linger comes with an example experiment from
  which you can copy all files
• items - experimental and filler sentences and
  questions
• preferences
• introduction - intro and practice trials
• break - run if a rest break occurs
• conclusion - end of the experiment

5
Item format

• Item Identifier
• Filler identifier
• filler 1
• Items can
• Have several sentences (line by line)
• Followed by one or more questions

6
Structuring an item (for RT studies)

• Blocking word1_word2
• Fixing word_at_
• Breaking words part1part2 ? I had this wrong!
• You can tag words (will show in result file)
  e.g.
• I saw_at_VERB a_big_fat_turkey_at_OBJ the other
  daaay.
• This allows you to use regions that differ in
  length between items!!!

7
Questions

• Three types of question possible (any comb.)
• Yes-No
• ?TAG Blib Blub? Y
• Multiple choice
• !TAG Blib ___ Blub. a1 a_b2 a3 a_b2 a3
• Fill-in the blank
• TAG Blib ___ Blub

8
Question configuration

• If true, multiple questions are randomly
  ordered
• set QuestRand 0
• This is the number of questions asked per item.
  If it is the null string, all are asked
• set QuestNum
• set QuestProb 1.0
• set FillInBlankWidth 50
• set MultiKeys A a B b C c D d

9
Lists Ordering

• Automatic Latin-square design over all conditions
  (different experiments in the same file must have
  unique condition-IDs)
• The number of lists will be the least common
  multiple of of conditions in each item.
• Ordering is by default random (but thats your
  choice)

10

• Self-centered reading prefs

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Self-paced reading preferences (1)GENERAL

• Should spaces within blocks be masked
• set MaskJoins 0
• Should spaces between blocks be masked
• set MaskSpaces 0
• The gap between mask dashes (in pixels)
• set MaskGap 1
• The number of blocks to show at once with a
  moving window
• set WindowSize 1
• set WindowStep 1

12
Self-paced reading preferences (2)KEYS

• set GoKey space
• set NoKey f
• set YesKey j

13
Self-paced reading preferences (3)FEEDBACK

• The delay (in msec) before presenting each
  sentence
• set PreDelay 1000
• set RightAnswer ""
• set WrongAnswer "Oops. Wrong answer."
• The time the feedback message stays on the
  screen
• set FeedbackDelay 1500

14
Other features

• Checking line breaks in items
• Configuring font size, etc.
• set TextFont "-family courier new -size -14
  -weight bold"
• Collect difficulty rating

15
Difficulty rating

• set CollectRatings 1
• Presented after the sentence, but before
  questions.
• The maximum value of the rating scale
• set RatingChoices 7
• The message presented along with ratings
• set RatingMessage "How difficult was it to
  understand that sentence?"
• set RatingEasy "Very Easy
• set RatingHard "Very Hard"