Meeting 1 reference: A first experiment
What you should be able to do
Eight lexical-decision task rows, with fixation and a saved export. Explain the logic and verify at least one normal and one edge case, using the actual saved data.
Concepts in context
The HTML page loads the core library, plugins, a small course helper, the item list, then app.js. Keep that dependency order. The local server solves file-serving issues; it does not become a result database. The bundled vendor files remove the ordinary CDN dependency.
A plugin defines an interaction, such as displaying HTML and collecting a key. A trial supplies its parameters. The timeline sequences those trials. The welcome, fixation, and response are all trials and each produces a row. Use task labels to distinguish their meanings.
The workshop uses a familiar JavaScript for ... of loop to construct eight response trials from the item array. The loop runs before the experiment; jsPsych then presents the timeline. This avoids requiring timeline variables before they are taught. The loop must create a new trial using the current item’s values and push fixation before it.
Keyboard choices are strings. A button response is a zero-based index. For scored tasks later, the correct response is a design field and the observed response is a participant field. In this meeting you inspect them manually. A missing response has null RT, never a fabricated 0 ms. The Course.finish helper adds a download/inspection panel after the timeline; it does not create an extra experimental row.
The lexical items are English teaching examples, not matched stimuli. Word length, familiarity, and nonword plausibility can confound a research comparison. Describe these limits rather than interpreting eight observations as evidence of a lexicality effect.
What to check in your implementation
17 total rows in the workshop: 1 instruction + 8 fixation + 8 response. The finish panel adds no row. Correctness is not scored automatically in Meeting 1. IDs and expected keys are recorded for later checks.
Use the live exercises and workshop sheet as the practical sequence. Compare with the released reference solution after an attempt. The debugging guide provides a symptom-to-check table. Try one editable example and its practice check before the full task.
Questions to answer without copying the code
- Why does NO_KEYS fixation need a duration?
- What happens if app.js loads before the plugin?
- Does no response mean zero RT?
Check your reasoning by running a small example; the instructor guide contains the expected explanations.
Reading (about 15 minutes)
Read the Hello World tutorial and the single/multiple-trial sections of the timeline guide. Focus on script order and trial objects; stop before advanced sampling.
Preparation for the next checkpoint
Explain a plugin/trial/timeline; identify one task row and one missing-response row. See assessment and deadlines.