Cognition Laboratory Experiments

John H. Krantz, Hanover College, krantzj@hanover.edu

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Hanover College
Psychology Department

Instructions for the
Attentional Blink, Ver. 2, Experiment

 

Having problems, try the new HTML5 version with improved results reporting.

This experiment is very similar to the Attentional Blink experiment.  The differences is in what stimuli you try to recall in the sequence.  When you click on the link below, you will be presented with the experiment setup screen.  On this screen will be the variables you can set to define your condition.  Here is a list of the variables and their settings.  Not all variables will be visible all the time.  Only those variables appropriate to the stimulus and other settings will be shown.  So changing some values may alter what is shown on the setup screen.

Variable Settings
Condition The target stimulus is a J, or the target stimulus is the red letter in the sequence of white letters.
Number of Repetitions Number of trials.
Number of Items The number of items that will be shown in the sequence.
Font Size If using a letter stimulus (from 10 to 64 point)
Fixation Duration The length of the fixation prior to the first item in the sequence being shown.
Item Duration How long each item in the sequence is shown.

After you have finished making your settings, press the Done button at the bottom of the screen.  The Attentional Blink experiment screen will then be presented. 

Press the space bar to begin the experiment.  A fixation mark will appear for the indicated time.  Then, one at at time, each letter in the sequence will be presented.  In the string the target, a "J" or a letter printed in red, will be presented.  Your task is to remember the next three letters.  At the end of the sequence, type these three letters.  If you make a mistake you may use the backspace to change your response.  Each letter will only be presented once so you will only be able to type any letter once.  When you are done, press the space bar to go to the next trial. 

At the end of the experiment, your results will be presented.  The results are your accuracy of recalling each of the three letters that follow the target.   You can also get your trial by trial results.  Closing your results window(s) will take you back to the setup window so you can run another experiment.

Click here to start the experiment.