Page History: Old Roulette Element
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Page Revision: 2018/07/11 14:19
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LPT Port
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| Info |
| Category: |
Communication |
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AddIn: |
Base Layer |
| Creator: |
OkazoLab |
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Scope: |
Parent event |
| Owns Snippets: |
Triggered |
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Usage: |
Snippets |
== Synchronized actions
Properties
Generic Properties
-</td>| Name | Property description | Constraints | Type | Upon change | |
| Control |
| Is Enabled | If set to false the element is completely omitted when the experiment is run | | Boolean |
| Title | Title of the element | | String |
| Port Settings |
| Base Address | Defines the base address the LPT port, for example 0x0378 (888) | | Int32 |
| Working Mode | Defines a working mode for the element.Select the 'AutoOutput on event onset' mode for sending signals synchronously with an onset of the parent event,or 'Triggering on input' mode for catching the particular pattern in port input. For custom reading/writing scenarios use the 'Manual IO' mode, in which port communication can be controlled by your code. | | stParallelPortMode |
| Input |
| Test Input | Open a input monitor window showing real-time port input with the current settings. Use for testing at designtime. | | Boolean |
| Input Value | Returns the current state of the port input lines. The property is updated automatically only in the Triggering Input mode. The value can be read either to the integer or binary formats, e.g. 'string S=Input;' may return '01010101' | | clBinaryInteger |
| Triggering Value | When the element is in the 'Triggering input' working mode, a value of this property defines the 'catching' input pattern in the binary format. If the pattern is detected in port input at any time, the element registers the detection time and becomes triggered. The Triggering Input has to be defined for each of the port line, e.g. '1111****' can be used for detection of the ON state in the first 4 lines of a 8-bit port. Use either '0' or '1' chars for the relevant lines and and the '*' char for irrelevant. Set all lines to *, if you want to detect any change in the port input. | | String |
| Trigger Once | Defines whether the element can be triggered multiple times, while the parent event is active. If the property value is 'true' only the first triggering is registered | | Boolean |
| Output |
| Signal Profile | Defines the time-amplitude profile of the output signal.'Level Change', 'Pulse' and 'TTL' profiles are available | | stParallelPortSignalShape |
| Preface Duration | Defines the duration (ms) of the guarantied zero preface interval for the TTL or Pulse signals. Increase the preface duration marginally, if your recording hardware does not detect port signals. Note that a non-zero preface delays the onset of the actual signal. | | Double |
| Pulse Duration | Duration of a single output pulse in ms. The value is applied only if the Pulse signal profile is selected | | UInt64 |
| Interpulse Duration | Defines a duration of the inter-pulse interval in ms. The value is applied only if the Pulse signal profile is selected | | clTime |
| Pulse Number | Defines a number of pulses in the pulse train. The value is applied only if the Pulse signal profile is selected | | Int32 |
| Output Value | Value to be sent through the port. Can be defined in integer or binary format, e.g. Output='01010000'; or Output=255; | | clBinaryInteger |
| Send Output Now | Runtime action initiating an instant output communication through the port. Call this action in snippets by 'SendNow=true;', but only if the element works in the 'Manual I/O' mode. | | Boolean |
| Runtime Status |
| Is Triggered | Indicates whether the element has been triggered at least once since activation of the parent event.Triggering occurs only in the 'Input Detection' working mode | | Boolean |
| Triggering Time | Indicates the local event time of the last element triggering. Triggering occurs only in the 'Input Detection' working mode. | | clTime |
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Roulette is an element that is designed to produce flexible randomization scenarios in your experiment. In the simplest case it works as a random number generator.
Description
In the simplest case it works as a random number generator. For more complicated scenarios it can generate the balanced random blocks of integer numbers and provides a runtime control over them. A simple roulette random number generator can be created by choosing an appropriate event and selecting
Event –
Add Element command and selecting
Roulette under the
Design section.
Snapshots
 Snapshot 1
| Snapshot 2 |
Practical Use
A Simple Random Number Generator ¶
Many experiments require the use of simple random number generators for independent, non-blocked features of the design. In a visual task for example it may be necessary to randomly rotate the stimuli on each trial. This factor is unrelated to the experimental factors that will be manipulated in the design (see next section). Once the new Roulette element has been added, it is necessary to amend certain properties in order to get it to behave as appropriately. If the random number generator is simply that, then it is necessary to set the range of the random numbers that are desired in the Factors box by specifying the highest number in the range and placing the letter x behind it. If a stimulus is going to be rotated by a random number of degrees upon each trial for example, then we would set the factors box to read “360x”.
It is of course necessary to specify via code, the parameter that will be controlled by the random number that has been generated.
Experimental Factors and Blocking ¶
Most experiments will have a roulette counter to ensure that the main experimental factors are randomly presented, a specific number of times, within each block. If, under the Roulette properties, the property for
Blocking is set to ‘True’, then the main levels of the experimental variables can be defined. Under
Factors the levels of each experimental variable should be written as ‘2x3x3’ or ‘2x2’ etc. The
Block Length will then be calculated, and if a certain variable should be more frequent then others, then this can be manipulated via the
Value Frequencies option.
It is of course necessary to assign the output of the
Factored Random Value as a multiparameter array (see Parameters and then in the code snippets, assign the individual parameters of this array to variable names. It is then necessary to specify what the properties of these parameters should be, in the differing levels of each variable. See the bottom of this page for a more detailed example.
In the example below,
Blocking is set to "true", and the experimental design in outlined in the Factors box as 2x2x2x3x4. A multi parameter array named ‘fRandomValue’ (visible in orange) has been assigned to the property
Factored Random Value.
The individual parameters of this array have been assigned specific names in the snippets box.
The last factor (x4) has not been defined. This means that each of the conditions that have been defined, will be repeated 4 times – thus lengthening the duration of each block.
Given that the first parameter in the array ‘TContrast’ can be only one of two values (as defined in the Factors box), only four simple lines of code are required to specify what EventIDE should do for each of the 2 levels of this factor. In this example, the shared ‘Colormask’ property of three different elements has been assigned as a multi-parameter array, and the RGB values of this color mask manipulated as required. See the section parameters for more information on manipulating the properties of individual elements.
TContrast=fRandomValue[0];
DContrast=fRandomValue[1];
OContrast=fRandomValue[2];
Distance=fRandomValue [3];