Research Tutorials

This page has information about how to get started with psycholinguistic experiments and running experiments online from the University of Tromsø. If you follow the guidelines in the documents below, you can run an experiment directly from a local UiT server, which is a safe way to collect data, and that is fully in accordance with guidelines from the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (NSD).

 

The experiments are run from a JATOS server (http://www.jatos.org) at the University of Tromsø. You can use several different tools to build your experiments and then upload them to the JATOS server. In the tutorials below, we use OpenSesame (https://osdoc.cogsci.nl) for building experiments. OpenSesame is a simple and user friendly program which is well integrated with the JATOS platform. We recommend everyone who is new to experimental methods to start with OpenSesame. However, you are not limited to OpenSesame if you want to use the JATOS server. You may also use programs/libraries like jsPsych (https://www.jspsych.org) or lab.js (https://lab.js.org).

If you want to get a user account on the UiT JATOS server, write to Myrte Vos (myrte.t.vos@uit.no). A detailed guide to how to get started with JATOS is given in the following document (NB: please note that this document is in active and ongoing development!)

JATOS Handbook

For a written down tutorial on how to set up a number of common psycholinguistic experiments in OpenSesame, check out the following document

Psycholinguistics Open Sesame 

The tutorial covers simple text-based paradigms like word recognition, lexical classification, priming and self paced reading as well as paradigms that require sound stimulus and pictures. All experiments are compatible with the JATOS platform.
The two documents mentioned above, where presented during three online tutorials. These tutorials are available as downloads (warning, quite big Mp4-files). All information in the tutorials are also available in the written handbooks/tutorials as well, so you might want to start with the written material.

Tutorial 1: Getting started with OpenSesame (text-based experiments)

Tutorial 2: Getting started with JATOS

Tutorial 3: Sound files, images and mouse clicks in OpenSesame in JATOS

 

There are several good resources available online for getting help with experiment building and hosting/distribution on internet based experiments. The web pages for JATOS, OpenSesame and jsPsych and lab.js contain lots of resources. There is a google group for online experiments where you can find plenty of useful information: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/online-experiments. Also, for getting started with jsPsych, please check out the web site for the online workshop Moving Research Online: http://www.movingresearchonline.info