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Copyright Information
Copyright 1990-2011 Cedrus Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Under the copyright laws, this manual or the software described within may not be copied, in
whole or in part, without the written consent of the manufacturer, except in normal use of the
software to make a backup copy. The same proprietary and copyright notices must be affixed
to any permitted copies as were affixed to the original. This exception does not allow copies to
be made for others, whether or not sold, but all of the material purchased (with all backup
copies) may be sold, given, or loaned to another person. Under the law, copying includes
translating into another language or format. The information contained in this publication is
subject to change without notice. Cedrus Corporation makes no warranty of any kind with
regard to this written material and shall not be held liable for errors contained herein or for
incidental or consequential damages that may occur in connection with the use of this manual
or the software, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. See also the License
Agreement at the end of the manual. Cedrus and SuperLab are registered trademarks of
Cedrus Corporation. All other products and brand names are trademarks of their respective
holders.
Thank you for purchasing SuperLab, an experimental tool we hope will serve
you well.
SuperLab is the result of long, long hours of work. Weve put a lot of time into
it so you wont have to. And wed like to continue improving it and
implementing your ideas and suggestions.
Thanks again for choosing SuperLab. We wish you success in your work.
- ii -
Table of Contents
1. Introduction! 1
Installation on Mac OS X
1
Installation on Windows
1
System Requirements
1
The Community Forums
2
Cedrus Support
2
Whats Not Covered in This Manual
3
Thank You
3
2. SuperLab Tutorial! 5
Creating a Block and a Trial
6
Saving the Experiment
7
Creating an Event
7
Linking
8
Participant Input and Input Devices
8
Ready to Run?
9
Defining Responses
9
Adding Cues
10
Stimulus Lists
11
Creating/Importing Stimuli
13
Creating the Blocks
15
Randomization
16
- iii -
4. Conditional Branching! 27
Features Needed
27
Introduction to Expressions
28
More On Expressions
29
Looking at a Subset of Trials
30
Introduction to Macros
32
Using Code Values for More Capable Expressions
33
Trial-Level Expressions
39
5. Timing! 41
Resetting The Timer
41
Reaction Time Accuracy
41
Presentation Accuracy
43
6. How Do I...! 47
Presenting Two or More Visual Stimuli at the Same Time
47
Providing Feedback to Participants
48
Presenting a Sound and Visual Stimulus at the Same Time
50
Giving Participants a Break After N Trials
50
Randomize a Stimulus List
53
Moving Experiments Between Macs and PCs
55
- iv -
Also From Cedrus
Response Pads
Cedrus offers two series of response pads including one for fMRI. Both series offer a built-in
reaction time timer and an Accessory Connector that provides six lines of I/O. Visit our web
site (http://www.cedrus.com) for more details.
StimTracker
Using EEG/ERP in your experiment? StimTracker makes it easy to send event markers to
your recording equipment. It supports:
Event markers sent from the computer via USB
Up to four photocells
Audio
Microphone input
Six digital input lines
Cedrus works closely with several manufacturers. StimTracker ships with a kit that includes
an adapter board and cable. The kit makes it instantly compatible with:
ADInstruments
ANT Neuro
Biopac
BioSemi
Brain Products
MindWare
Alternatively, it can come with a kit that lets you connect to a PCs parallel port or to a
terminal block. StimTracker ships complete including a AC adapter, two photocells, USB
cable, and a kit of your choice.
Visit our web site (www.cedrus.com) for more details.
- vi -
Why is our memory good enough to recall to the last detail
things that have happened to us, yet not good enough to recall
- Franois de La Rochefoucauld,
French writer, (1613-1680).
- vii -
C HAPTER 1
Introduction
Thank you for purchasing SuperLab, your tool for building experiments. With SuperLab, you
can present images, text, and video, and collect responses accurately from participants.
Your CD-ROM includes the following:
SuperLab application
Cedrus Data Viewer application
Letter Rotation sample experiment
The Cedrus Data Viewer lets you view collected data files one by one or in combination,
transpose them, and merge them.
Installation on Mac OS X
Copy the SuperLab and Cedrus Data Viewer applications to your Applications folder.
Installation on Windows
Run the setup.exe file found on the CD-ROM.
To run SuperLab, click on the Start button in the bottom left corner of your monitor, then click
on All Programs, then SuperLab 4.5.
System Requirements
On the PC: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Windows 7.
For using movies, you need DirectX 9.0 and a video card that works with DirectX 9.0,
including support for hardware acceleration and VMR. (Note: DirectX 9.0 will require
Windows XP or later.)
On the Mac: Mac OS 10.4 or later is required.
Both versions of SuperLab can play movies on a single core or single processor computer, but
playing movies smoothly requires a dual core computer. We recommend 1 GB for memory.
Having a very good video card is more important than the processing speed of the CPU.
The Community Forums
The next logical step is to register and setup your own account at the Cedrus community
forums. It takes about one minute. The link is http://community.cedrus.com.
Anyone can search the forums for answers or pre-built experiments. But only registered users
can post questions and download experiments, including some sample ones that are needed
for going through the conditional branching chapter in this manual. To get started:
Cedrus Support
Cedrus provides several ways in which you can get support, report bugs, or to give us
feedback on how we can improve SuperLab.
1 - Introduction
PAGE 2
By Email
Due to spam, we no longer publish an email address. Tech support emails can be sent to
Cedrus by visiting this page:
! http://www.cedrus.com/misc/send_email.htm
By Phone
The hours are 9 AM to 4 PM Pacific Standard Time (PST) time. The number is
1-800-CEDRUS1 (thats 1-800-233 7871). It is available toll free anywhere in the United States
and Canada. If you are calling from overseas or from the Los Angeles area, the number is
1-310-548-9595.
Thank You
As of this writing, SuperLab is in its 16th year and has been sold in over 60 countries. This
would not have been possible without you, our software users. So from the bottom of our
hearts: thank you.
1 - Introduction
PAGE 3
C HAPTER 2
SuperLab Tutorial
In this tutorial, we will build a word/non-word experiment that will present instructions to
the participant followed by six trials. Each trial will consist of a cue and stimulus.
This experiment is designed to illustrate a few techniques and features of SuperLab:
Creating blocks, trials, and events, then linking them together
Taking advantage of stimulus lists
Defining the responses
Randomizing trials
When developing your own experiments, it is important to plan carefully and take advantage
of the stimulus lists and code values features, if possible. This can save you a lot of
development time as well as make it easier to see the structure of your experiment and
maintain it.
Going through this tutorial takes less than an hour. What you need to type is shown in this
color.
Notice how SuperLab displays yellow "tooltips" as you move the mouse cursor over the icons.
The tooltips for the New Trial, Edit Trial, and Delete Trial icons are also dynamic and will
change depending on where the blue selection rectangle is.
Type Instructions.
Creating an Event
Back to the experiment, you are now ready to create your first event. We want to complete
the instructions part of the experiment.
In the main experiment window, click on the list of events. The selection rectangle will
move from the list of trials to the list of events.
In the toolbar, click on the New Event icon. The Event Editor will appear.
As mentioned earlier, an event is the smallest unit of an experiment. It is where you tell
SuperLab what to present to the participant, what is a correct response, and how to provide
feedback based on the participants response.
For the event name, type Instructions.
Click on the Stimulus tab to select it if its not selected already.
Click on the Event Type popup menu and select Text.
In the large text editing field, type:
Click on the OK button. The Event Editor will go away and Instructions will also appear in
the list of events.
The block and trial are now linked. Let's do the same for the trial and event:
Click on the trial "Instructions" to select it (the trial name itself and not its checkbox).
Click on the blue checkbox that's on the left of the event name.
Click on the Save Experiment icon.
Ready to Run?
You now have enough to run an experiment. Click on the Run Experiment icon shown on the
right of the toolbar. SuperLab will present the Run dialog:
Since we're still early in the development stage, there is no need to enter the participant's
name or collect data:
Click on the Save collected data checkbox to turn it off
Click on the Run button
SuperLab will open a window that covers the entire screen, display the instructions that you
typed in Step 4 earlier, and wait for you to press any key on the keyboard. You can also press
the Esc key to cancel an experiment in progress.
Defining Responses
As mentioned in the instructions, the participant is expected to respond by pressing the keys
Y and N. We need to create two corresponding responses. Note that SuperLab will always
record what the user presses regardless of whether you define responses or not, but by doing
so you can later tell the Event Editor which is the correct response for a particular stimulus.
This has the following benefits:
You can chose to end an event only after a correct response instead of any response
You can provide feedback to the participant based on whether his or her response is
correct or not
For the response name, type "Y key (is word)". It is a good idea to type a descriptive
name of the key instead of simply "Y".
Type "y" for the actual key.
Click on OK to close the response editor.
We repeat the steps above for the N key:
Click on the New... button to create a response. The response editor opens.
For the response name, type "N key (is not word)".
Type "n" for the actual key.
Click on OK to close the response editor.
Click on Done to close the Participant Input dialog.
Remember to save; click on the Save Experiment icon.
Adding Cues
We are now ready to build the core of the experiment. Recall that we want to present six
trials, each consisting of a cue and a stimulus. Let's start with the cue:
Stimulus Lists
The next step is to create the events that present the stimuli. This is similar to creating the
instruction and cue events except that we do it six times, one for each stimulus. Here, we
introduce the all important stimulus lists feature which will allow us to create a single event
instead of six:
Click on the Experiment menu and select Stimulus Lists. A dialog opens.
Click on the New icon. A second dialog, the Stimulus List Editor, opens.
You can create lists of files or lists of single line sentences. Click on the List Type popup
menu in the upper right corner of the dialog and change File to Text.
Creating/Importing Stimuli
You now have everything needed to create the stimuli using a single event:
Press Tab until the blue selection rectangle surrounds the list of events.
Make sure that none of the existing events are selected. You can do this by clicking
anywhere on the white space under the events.
Click on the New Event icon on the toolbar. The Event Editor appears.
For the event name, type Stimulus.
Click on the Stimulus tab if it's not selected already.
The Event Type should still be set to Text.
Click on the Use Text option and select Text Chosen From the List:. The name of the list
that you created in the previous step appears.
That's it. You have just taken care of presenting your stimuli with a couple of mouse clicks.
We still need to tell SuperLab what is the correct response for a given list item.
In Windows, you can select all three simultaneously by hold down the Shift key while
you click with the mouse.
On the Mac, you can select all three simultaneously by hold down the Command () key
while you click with the mouse.
Click on the "...the correct response is" popup menu (in the upper right part of the dialog)
and select the One or more of the following option.
Click on the checkbox to the left of "Y key (is word)" to turn it on.
We're done with the list of words. For nonwords:
Select the three nonwords: neibs, quighs, and chortz.
Click on the "...the correct response is" popup menu and select the One or more of the
following option.
Click on the checkbox to the left of "N key (is not word)" to turn it on.
We would like the event to stay on the screen until the participant presses the correct key:
Click on the Input tab.
Click on the After a correct response from the participant checkbox to turn it on.
Last but not least (as far as this event is concerned), we need to reset the reaction time timer.
This is a very important detail: not doing so means that the reaction times that SuperLab
collects in the data file will be measured relative to the onset of the cue instead of the onset of
the stimulus itself:
Still in the Input tab, click on the Reset RT timer checkbox to turn it on.
Click on OK to close the Event Editor.
Back in the main window, notice that the Stimulus event has a stacked checkbox ( ) instead of
standard checkbox. This is a visual indication that the event uses a stimulus list.
Click on the checkboxes to the left of the events "Cue" and "Stimulus". This tells
SuperLab that trial "Word-Nonword Trial" consists of event "Cue" followed 500
milliseconds later by the stimulus.
Randomization
SuperLab offers several ways to randomize. This section summarizes the available options:
Trials in a block: This is by far the most commonly used randomization. To randomize
trials within a block, double-click on the block to invoke the Block Editor and see the
options in the Randomize tab. This is also discussed in the chapter How Do I....
Location of a visual stimulus: When editing the settings for a visual stimulus, you can
specify that the position be variable instead of fixed. After doing so, you can specify that
the location/position be variable by clicking on the Experiment menu, clicking on Trial
Variables, then editing the Location trial variable that you are using.
Text color: Events of type Text can also use a variable to chose the color. To edit the
range of colors and select randomization, click on the Experiment menu, click on Trial
Variables, then edit the Color trial variable that you are using.
Time limit: The time limit provided for a participant to respond can also be made a
variable in the Event Editors Input tab. To edit the time range and select randomization,
click on the Experiment menu, click on Trial Variables, then edit the Number trial
variable that you are using.
Other features:
You can define multiple correct responses even if they are from different devices, e.g.
keyboard and response pad.
For Go/No-Go experiments, a correct response can be None, the participant must not
respond, as shown:
Feedback
It is common in an experiment to provide feedback to participants. In SuperLab, feedbacks
are handled at the event level and generally consist of "actions" performed when a "condition"
happens. The supported conditions are:
Response is correct: how SuperLab interprets correctness depends on the option selected
in the Event Editor's Correct Response tab
Response is not correct
No response within a certain amount of time: this time value is the same as the event's
time limit if the event imposes a time limit, otherwise it can be user specified
Reaction time is too slow
Reaction time is too fast
Always: this condition's actions are always executed. This is useful, for example, to mark
a trial as having been presented regardless of the participants response
The following actions are supported:
Present Event: this is useful for displaying a text message, playing a beep, or sending an
event marker; you can have many Present Event actions per condition
Specify Where To Go: tells SuperLab what to do for any given condition: repeat the trial,
present the remaining events in the trial, or skip any remaining events in the trial and
move to the next one; you can have only one Specify Where To Go action and it needs to
be the last one
Change Code Value: lets you "mark" an event or trial; you can have many Change Code
Value actions
The dialog snapshot above shows four codes already created. Click on a code to see its values;
in the example above, the code "Front or Back" has two values.
To create a new code, click on the New button on the left hand side. Another dialog
appears:
Once you have created codes and values, you can use them in the following places:
You can attach code values to a trial in the Trial Editor's Code Values tab.
You can attach code values to stimulus list items in the Stimulus List Editor.
You can attach code values to events in the Event Editor's Code Values tab. This is
possible only if the event does not use a stimulus list.
You can change a code value using an "action" in the Event Editor's Feedback tab by first
specifying the condition for which to execute the action, e.g. if response is correct, and
then creating a new action.
When creating or editing an expression in the Block Editor, you can specify a subset of
trials that has a particular code value attached to them.
For additional information regarding Codes, please see the following sections below:
Trial Editor
Event Editor
Number Vary an events time limit All event types; this variable can be
used in the Event Editors Input tab
Participant Groups
The participant groups feature in SuperLab lets you perform two main things:
Specify which blocks are presented and the order that they are presented in. This gives
you a way of specifying counterbalancing sequences.
Control when trials within a block, events within a trial, or trial variable levels are
randomized.
Participant groups can be used when you need to divide your population of participants into
groups based on certain factors such as age or gender; or to test a dependent variable.
Because of the way SuperLab works, at least one group is always required. Due to this,
SuperLab automatically creates a new group when you create a new experiment. You can edit
this group and rename it. But you cannot delete the last group in an experiment.
Editing Groups
In this example, we will create two participant groups, one for left handed participants and
another for right handed ones. Prior to proceeding with this example, create the following
four blocks: Instructions, All Participants, Left Handed Participants, and Right
Handed Participants.
When randomizing, you can specify that randomization be done on a per group basis in the
following places in the program:
In the Randomize tab of the Block Editor
In the Randomize tab of the Trial Editor
In the Level Selection tab of a Trial Variable Editor
Conditional Branching
Conditional branching is not a single feature in SuperLab. Rather, it refers to a set of features
in SuperLab that allow you to develop more sophisticated experiments. Here are some of the
things that you can accomplish with conditional branching:
Pause the experiment after a certain number of trials have been presented in order to give
the participant a break
Present trials in a block until the moving average of the participants reaction time drops
under a certain threshold, e.g. in memory experiments
Prevent the experiment from proceeding to the next block until all the trials in the current
block have been answered correctly
Alter the order in which trials are presented based on the participants response
Features Needed
The SuperLab features that you need in order to use conditional branching are:
Codes and code values
Feedbacks in the Event Editor so that you can alter a trials code value at run time
Expressions in the Block Editors When to Run tab
Expressions in the Trial Editors When to Present tab
Macros
More On Expressions
Expressions can be more sophisticated than the example just presented. You can have
multiple comparisons and combine them with logical and and or.
Lets continue with the earlier example. In addition to presenting 40 trials out of a set of 100,
we also want to limit the blocks duration to 40 seconds. To proceed:
If you are not in the Block Editor already, double-click on the relevant block to edit it.
In the When to Run tab, click on the New + icon. The Expression Editor will appear.
The LHS default is Time Since Start of Block. Its the one we want.
Change the operator to Is Less Than Or Equal To.
Notice how the two comparisons that were created are listed. The expression will be true only
if both comparisons are satisfied. Now for the fun part: lets say you want the expression to be
true if either of the comparisons are true. You can accomplish this by clicking on the blue
and operator. Doing so changes it to or:
There are no limits on how many comparisons an expression can have or on how you combine
them.
Introduction to Macros
Once you know what an expression is, macros becomes easy to understand. A SuperLab
macro consists of:
An expression that is identical to what has been described thus far in this chapter
A list of actions to perform if the expression evaluates to true
Another list of actions to perform if the expression evaluates to false
Some of the available actions are: presenting an event, going to a particular block, exiting the
experiment, repeating a trial, and so forth.
Advantages of Macros
Using an expression in the When to Run tab of the Block Editor makes it simpler to
implement loops that cause a block to keep repeating until a certain condition is met. But
macros have their own advantages. One, a macro is an independent object in SuperLab
with its own name. Once created, it can be used in more than one block. And two, macros
allow you to do more.
See an example of using macros in Chapter 6 in the Giving Participants a Break After N
Trials section.
In the examples weve seen so far, we created expressions that used the time since the start of
a block or the participants reaction time. But how can we create an expression that is based
on the participants response? First, we create a code and give it some code values. Then,
when the participant responds, we use the feedback mechanism in the Event Editor to mark
or tag the trial. And finally, we can create an expression that looks only at those tagged
trials.
As usual, it is best to use an example. This time, we will start with a pre-existing experiment
that we can build on. It can be downloaded by visiting the Cedrus Community Forums
(http://community.cedrus.com), then click on Experiments (under SuperLab), then click on
Demos. Alternatively, you can type the following URL directly:
! http://community.cedrus.com/showthread.php?t=553
This experiment contains two stimulus lists, one for words and the other for non-words. The
participant is supposed to press the y key if its a word, or the n key otherwise. Each list
contains 5 items resulting in 10 trials being presented.
Note the presence of an event called Exiting Block Message. This event is not linked to any
trials. Well use it for informational purposes only.
In the list of actions on the right, note how SuperLab automatically created an action that
would cause any remaining events in the trial to be skipped. This action makes no difference
for the purpose of our experiment, so well leave it alone.
Click on the New + icon that is on the right side. The New Action dialog appears.
Trial-Level Expressions
The final conditional branching feature that we will look at is found in the When to Present
tab of the Trial Editor. This feature is found only in SuperLab version 4.0.7 or later.
The conditional branching features we looked at so far have mostly dealt with trials within a
block, e.g. the reaction time over a range of trials or a count of trials. Things are simpler at the
trial level: the only concern is whether to present the current trial or not.
Trial-level expressions are most powerful when combined with a macro at the block level. An
example is when you want to present all the trials in the block until the participant has
responded correctly to all of them. You can do this by:
Using the feedback feature and code values to mark a trial as having been answered
correctly
Ti m i n g
This chapter discusses the crucial issue of timing, how SuperLab does it, what you can do to
help improve it, and other details related to using a particular input device or timer. Other
topics that affect the accuracy of timing are also discussed here.
At Cedrus, we designed SuperLab to be friendly yet powerful, and we are trying to keep its
manual as clear as possible by eliminating the unnecessary computerese whenever possible.
Unfortunately, when discussing timing, we have to introduce some computer concepts as well
as some Mac- or Windows-specific information.
Keyboard
USB keyboards are regularly sampled, providing information at intervals determined by the
keyboard itself (e.g. an Apple keyboard samples with a precision of 8 milliseconds, while a
Kensington keyboard samples at 16 milliseconds). This is independent of the operating
system. The operating system choice does affect accuracy, with SuperLab on Leopard
providing a standard deviation of 0.0334 milliseconds, whereas SuperLab on Vista has a
standard deviation of 0.333 milliseconds. More information is available on this forum post:
! http://community.cedrus.com/showthread.php?t=513
The accuracy from PS/2 keyboards ranges from 16 to 35 milliseconds.
5 - Timing
PAGE 42
Microphone Input (Mac only)
SuperLab for Macintosh supports the built-in microphone jack. All you need is a compatible
microphone. In internal tests, we found the timing resolution to be about 20 milliseconds.
Presentation Accuracy
Another important timing consideration is the accuracy of presentation. Computer monitors
come with some built-in limitations. It is important to understand these limitations and how
they affect stimulus presentation.
5 - Timing
PAGE 43
How CRT Monitors Work
A cathode ray tube (CRT) monitor contains a gun shooting
electrons at the screen. The inside of the screen has a
phosphorous coating. When hit by the electrons, the
phosphorous coating produces light, and a pixel is seen turned
on. By turning enough pixels on, a picture and/or text forms on
the screen.
This approach to displaying information provides great
flexibility, but there is one catch: if the gun inside the monitor
stops shooting electrons at the pixel location on the screen, the
phosphorous coating will no longer emit light and the pixel will fade away. To get around
this, a computer instructs the electron gun to shoot at given locations on the screen several
times a second, typically 60 to 120 times per second. This operation is known as refreshing, or
video refresh. The higher the refresh rate, the less flicker a monitor has.
Implications
Regardless of the monitor type, there is a refresh rate involved, expressed in
Hertz and abbreviated as Hz. A monitor thats refreshed or updated 60 times per second is
said to have a refresh rate of 60 Hz, or 60 cycles per second.
The most important implication is that a stimulus cannot be displayed for less than one
refresh cycle. This is a hardware limitation regardless of which operating system or computer
you are using.
To determine the minimum exposure time of a stimulus in milliseconds, divide 1000 by the
refresh rate. For example, if your monitor and video cards refresh rate is 60 Hz, then each
cycle (and hence the minimum exposure time) is 1000 divided by 60, or 16.666 milliseconds.
Another implication is that the exposure time of a stimulus must be in multiples of the refresh
cycle. Using a 60 Hz monitor as an example, the exposure time can only be 16.6 milliseconds,
33.3 milliseconds, 49.9 milliseconds, and so forth. This does not matter much when presenting
a stimulus for a few hundred milliseconds or more, but is important with very brief exposure
times.
5 - Timing
PAGE 44
SuperLab 4.0 and later synchronizes the presentation of stimuli with the precise start of a
refresh cycle on both Windows and Mac OS X 10.4 or later; it does not synchronize on
MacOS10.3.9.
Specifying an exposure time for a stimulus is typically done by entering a time limit in the
Input tab of the Event Editor. For brief exposure times, we recommend that the time limit
specified in milliseconds be
! ( N minus 1 )
! times duration of cycle
! plus 1 millisecond
where N is the desired exposure time expressed in cycles. The logic behind this is to take
advantage of SuperLabs precise syncing with the start of each cycle by specifying one less
cycle that you want, add a tiny bit to it, and then let SuperLab round up to the next refresh
cycle.
For example, if you want the exposure time to be three cycles on a 60 Hz monitor, specify the
time limit as
! ( 3 - 1 )! ! ! ! ! equal to 2
! 2 times 16.66 milliseconds!! ! yields 33.33 milliseconds
! plus 1 millisecond! ! ! yields 34.33 milliseconds
You can enter the time limit as 34 milliseconds in the Event Editor. Because a stimulus can
only be presented in multiples of refresh cycles, SuperLab will wait for specified 34
milliseconds, and then wait some more for the start of the next cycle, hence giving you the
three cycles that you wanted.
5 - Timing
PAGE 45
C HAPTER 6
How Do I...
This chapter describes how to accomplish some common tasks in SuperLab 4.0. More How
Do I topics will be added over time in the help files that ship with the software. Additional
how to help and sample experiments can be found on the SuperLab experiments forum at
! http://community.cedrus.com/forumdisplay.php?f=9
Once created, edit the event that collects the participants input and click on the Feedback tab.
This tab has two main lists: one on the left for the condition that you want to provide feedback
for, and the other for the actions that you want done given that condition.
For this example, we keep the default The response is not correct.
Click on OK.
You can now specify the actions that you want done when the participants response is not
correct. By default, SuperLab creates an action that repeats the current trial, but you can easily
double-click on it to edit it. To show the Incorrect Feedback:
Start by clicking on the + icon on the right side of the dialog. A dialog opens showing a
list of the available actions.
Click on the popup menu and select Present Event. The bottom portion of the dialog
automatically changes to show a menu containing all the available events.
Select the event Incorrect Feedback that we created earlier.
Click on the OK button. The Event Editor will close and Participant Break will appear
in the list of events.
The next step is to create a macro:
In the main experiment window, double-click on your block to edit it
Click on the Macros tab
Click on the New button icon to create a new macro; the Macro Editor appears
Name the macro Give a participant a break
In the Expression tab, click on the New (+) button; the Expression Editor appears
In the list of variables on the left, click on Trials Presented in This Block; three
"functions" appear automatically on the right side
Click on the Number of function to select it if it's not selected already
In the RHS (right hand side) section at the bottom of the dialog, enter the number of trials
after which you want to introduce a pause, e.g. type 30 if you want to give the participant
a break after 30 trials
The trial consists of a fixation point followed by a stimulus. However, the second event the
word uses a stimulus list that contains 10 items. When running the experiment, SuperLab
creates internally 10 trials where each trial uses a single item from the stimulus list. You can
visually see this by clicking on the Experiment menu and choosing Expand Events That Use
Lists. This feature will create a new expanded experiment:
A word of caution:
Any changes that you make in an expanded experiment will not apply to the original
(source) experiment. We therefore recommend that you use an expanded experiment
only for viewing how SuperLab will present trials at run-time.
Multiple Lists
When using more than one stimulus list within the same trial, the first item from the first list is
always paired with the first item from the second list. If you have list A that has 5 items and
list B that has only 3 items, a total of five trials will be presented using the following pairing:
SuperLab saves the collected data in plain text files, with fields/columns separated by tabs.
These files can be opened using Excel, Numbers, SPSS, and any program that can open a text
file. SuperLab creates one file for each experiment run.
Cedrus provides a free Data Viewer program that offers several handy features. You can:
View one or several files simultaneously
View summary data such as counts, percentages, and average RTs
Flag records manually or have Data Viewer flag records that meet certain criteria
Show just the flagged records for a better understanding of the data
Combine any number of data files into a single, merged file
Transpose records in the merged file for easier handling in SPSS
Data Viewer works on Mac OS 10.3.9 or later and Windows 2000, XP, or Vista. The latest
version can always be downloaded from
! http://www.superlab.com/dataviewer
An example of how this feature can be useful is searching for reaction times that are too large
to make sense and then excluding them from the merged data files.
Note that the way this feature was implemented allows for drilling down on data. In other
words, you can flag an initial set of records based on one criterion and afterwards apply a
second criterion but only to the already flagged records.
Other Features
You can use row coloring with Cedrus Data Viewer to make it easier to spot flagged records or
incorrect responses. Row coloring is turned off by default but can be easily enabled by
clicking on the Rows menu and selecting Row Colors.
Supported Hardware
Participant Input
RB-400 / RB-600
RB-410 / RB-610
RB-420 / RB-520 / RB-620 / RB-820
RB-530 / RB-730 / RB-830 / RB-834
SV-1 Voice Key
Lumina fMRI Response Pads
Measurement Computing I/O devices (Windows only)
Microphone
Microsoft serial mouse
PST Serial Response Box
Standard Keyboard
Standard Mouse
Digital Output
SuperLab 4.0 supports the following Measurement Computing I/O cards for Windows only:
PC-CARD-DIO48 (for Laptop)
PCI-DIO24
The following National Instruments I/O devices are supported on Mac and Windows:
DaqCard-DIO-24
PCI-DIO-96
USB-6008
USB-6009
USB-6501
A PPENDIX B
License Agreement
Nearly every software license sold is governed by a license agreement, sometimes called an
End User License Agreement (EULA). Here is the EULA that governs the use of SuperLab,
first in plain English.
In Plain English
It's really simple:
1. If you have one license, no two persons may use SuperLab at any one time. If you have
two licenses, no three persons can use SuperLab at the same time.
2. Whenever in doubt, refer to item 1 above.
3. SuperLab may not be installed on a virtual machine such as Parallels or VMware.
Our EULA offers more flexibility than other vendors', many of whom insist that the software
may be installed on one machine only.
Software LICENSE
The SOFTWARE is protected by copyright laws and international copyright treaties, as well as
other intellectual property laws and treaties. The SOFTWARE is licensed, not sold.
1. GRANT OF LICENSE.
This EULA grants you the following rights:
Software. You may install and use one copy of the SOFTWARE on a computer.
Storage/Network Use. You may also store or install a copy of the computer software
portion of the SOFTWARE on the computer to allow your other computers to use the
SOFTWARE over an internal network, and distribute the SOFTWARE to your other
computers over an internal network. However, you must acquire and dedicate a license
for the SOFTWARE for each computer on which the SOFTWARE is used or to which it is
distributed. A license for the SOFTWARE may not be shared or used concurrently on
different computers.
Back-up Copy. You may make a single back-up copy of the SOFTWARE. You may use
the back-up copy solely for archival purposes.
3. UPGRADES.
If the SOFTWARE is an upgrade from another product, whether from Cedrus or another
supplier, you may use or transfer the SOFTWARE only in conjunction with that upgraded
product, unless you destroy the upgraded product. If the SOFTWARE is an upgrade of a
Cedrus product, you now may use that upgraded product only in accordance with this EULA.
If the SOFTWARE is an upgrade of a component of a package of software programs which
you licensed as a single product, the SOFTWARE may be used and transferred only as part of
that single product package and may not be separated for use on more than one computer.
4. COPYRIGHT.
All title and copyrights in and to the SOFTWARE (including but not limited to any images,
photographs, animations, video, audio, music, text and applets, incorporated into the
SOFTWARE), the accompanying printed materials, and any copies of the SOFTWARE, are
owned by Cedrus or its suppliers. You may not copy the printed materials accompanying the
SOFTWARE. All rights not specifically granted under this EULA are reserved by Cedrus.
5. DUAL-MEDIA SOFTWARE.
You may receive the SOFTWARE in more than one medium. Regardless of the type or size of
medium you receive, you may use SOFTWARE on only one computer. You may not use or
install the other medium on another computer. You may not loan, rent, lease, or otherwise
transfer the other medium to another user, except as part of the permanent transfer (as
provided above) of the SOFTWARE.
6. PRODUCT SUPPORT.
Product support for the SOFTWARE is provided by Cedrus or its resellers.
8. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY.
Under no circumstances and under no legal theory, tort, contract, or otherwise, shall Cedrus,
its suppliers, or resellers be liable to you or any other person for any indirect, special,
incidental, or consequential damages of any character including, without limitation, damages
for loss of goodwill, work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all other
commercial damages or losses. In no event will Cedrus be liable for any damages in excess of
11. MISCELLANEOUS.
This EULA represents the complete agreement concerning this license. The acceptance of any
purchase order placed by you is expressly made conditional on your assent to the terms set
forth herein, and not those in your purchase order. If any provision of this EULA is held to be
unenforceable, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it
enforceable. This EULA shall be governed by American law in the State of California (except
for conflict of law provisions). The application the United Nations Convention of Contracts for
the International Sale of Goods is expressly excluded.
Accuracy Event
keyboard 42 creating 7, 11, 13
presentation 43-45 marker iv, 6, 19, 21
reaction time 22, 41 Expand events 53-54
ADInstruments iv Experiment
file format 55
B
moving between Macs and PCs 55
Biopac iv Expressions
BioSemi iv creating 28-29
Blocks, creating 6 subset of trials 29-32, 36-37
Brain Products iv trial-level 39-40
using code values for 33
C
Codes F
creating 22, 34 Feedback 9, 20, 21
using 23, 27, 29 Fiber optics iii
values 20-22, 27, 29, 33-34, 39-40, 58 fMRI iii, 19, 42
Color 16, 24 Forums 2, 33
Conditional Branching 27-40, 50
Cues, adding 10 G
Go/No-Go experiments 20
D
Groups (see Participant Groups)
Data Viewer 57-59
Digital output 19, 41 I
DirectX 1 Input 2529, 46, 48, 52
Input Devices 3, 8, 41
E
I/O Card 9, 19
EEG / ERP iv, 19 ISI 41
Index
PAGE 67
K Response pads iii, 8, 20, 42
Results file (see Data Viewer)
Keyboard 8, 20
S
L
Save
Linking 8, 16
collected data 9, 57
Lumina fMRI iii, 9, 20, 42
experiment 7, 14, 50
M Scanner trigger iii
Stimulus Lists
Macros 32-39, 51
attaching codes to 23
Measurement Computing 9, 19
Microphone Input iv, 8, 42 creating/importing 11-15
P T
Index PAGE 68