Separator feedback

[jesslaw]

Hi Jeremy,

I encountered a potential bug with the feedback function of the “Separator” controller and wondered if you could help me out. I was trying use the “Communications between elements” aspect of this controller to give feedback to the answer to a previous “Question” controller. The relevant codes are given below:

newController("prac_cq", "Question", {q: row.question, as: ["Yes", "No"], randomOrder: false, hasCorrect:row.answer})
    .print()
    .wait()
    .log("Item", row.item)
,
newController("prac_sep", "Separator", {transfer: 1000, normalMessage: "Correct", errorMessage: "Incorrect"})
    .print()
    .wait()

For some reason, the feedback the separator controller gives is not based on the success/failure state of the element right before it, but based on the success/failure state of a previous trail. What this means is that there is a delay of one trial in terms of feedback—if I answer a question in Trial #1 incorrectly, the feedback is given in the separator element in Trial #2. Since there is no trial preceding Trial #1, the separator element in Trial #1 always gives the feedback “Correct” even if the question element right before it is answered incorrectly.

Any idea why this is happening? I didn’t have this problem when using the same function a month or so ago. Thanks a lot!

• This topic was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by Jeremy. Reason: moved to support

[Jeremy]

Hi,

I’m not sure whether this should qualify as a bug: the newController command injects the content of what you’d get when creating a dedicated trial using the corresponding controller, inside the current trial (newTrial). When you inject two controllers using newController within the same trial, you are not moving from one trial to the other after you complete the first Controller element: this is why the success/failure of your Separator controller tracks the preceding trial, not the preceding Controller element

If you want to use native-Ibex controllers, you could simply design a native-Ibex experiment (note that you can use Template to generate regular Ibex items). Alternatively, you could design your task within a full-PennController framework:

defaultText.center()
,
newText( "<p>"+row.question+"</p>" ).print()
,
newText("Yes").print(),newText("No").print()
,
newSelector("answer")
    .add(getText("Yes"),getText("No"))
    .keys("F","J")
    .log()
    .wait()
,
clear()
,
getSelector("answer")
    .test.selected( getText(row.answer) )
    .success( newText("Correct").print() ) 
    .failure( newText("Incorrect").print() )
,
newTimer(1000).start().wait()

NB: the Controller element’s log command takes no arguments

Let me know if you have questions

Jeremy

[jesslaw]

Thanks, Jeremy! I wasn’t aware that newController works this way. That makes a lot of sense to me now and the suggested solution works beautifully!
Since this is not really a bug, is there a way I can move this post somewhere else (or perhaps you can)?

And thanks for making the documentation and everything so accessible!!

[Author]

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