OpenSesame - A Guide
In this bundle you will find tips and tricks to easily make your own experiments in OpenSesame!
How to add an informed consent to your experiment in OpenSesame
The informed consent can be used to inform your participants about your experiment on matters like procedures and anonimity. This is a crucial step in most experiments, since informing your participants is often mandatory. But how do you add this consent form to your OpenSesame experiment?
Firstly, click on your 'experiment' in the overview-window. Now all elements of your experiment should appear. On the left side, a '+' button should be visible. If you click on this, two options appear; 'Append new item' and 'Append existing item (linked)'. Click the first option.
Now all elements you can add to your experiment appear. We want to add an informed consent form, so we click on 'form_consent'. Now a 'new_form_consent' should be visible in your overview.
Click the informed consent in the overview, and add the text you want in your informed consent.
OpenSesame's informed consent consists of a text, a checkbox and underneath that two buttens; 'Accept' and 'Decline'.
OpenSesame offers the option to change all of these items. This can be done by changing the parameters.
Form title: this is the title that will apear on the top of your informed consent.
Checkbox text: this is the text that will appear right next to your checkbox. Example: 'I have read and understood the information shown above'.
Accept button text: this is the text that your 'accept' button will contain. Example: 'I want to participate!'.
Decline button text: this is the text that your 'decline' button will contain. Example: 'I do not want to participate'.
Message on decline: this is the text your participant will see when he/she did not check the checkbox before clicking the accept button or when he/she clicks the decline button. Example: You need to accept the consent form to participate!.
When completed all of the steps above, your informed consent should be ready for use!
Questions? Let me know in the contribution section and I will answer them!
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How to add open- and multiple choice questions to your experiment in OpenSesame
When programming an experiment, you may want to use different types of questions. This can be a multiple choice question, open question, rating scale, etc.
To add questions, you need a loop and a sequence. To add these elements, you click on 'experiment' in your overview. Now all the elements of your experiments will be visible. Add your loop and sequence by clicking on the '+' button. When you did this, you must add your sequence to your loop. Do this by dragging the sequence onto the loop element in your overview, and choose the option ' insert into new loop'.
Now you have a loop that repeats your sequence for you. Now it's time to add your questions. Click on your sequence in the overview. On the screen that appears, you will be able to add elements to your sequence by clicking the '+' button. In this blog I will use two question types as an example: the open question and the multiple choice question.
Open question:
Add your open question element by clicking on the '+', and choose 'append new item' and 'form_text_input'. Now your open question will appear in the overview. Click on it in the overview to edit your question.
To edit the text your participant sees, edit 'form title'. You can use this as an instruction for your participant. An example for this is 'Click enter when you have given your answer'.
There are two ways you can edit your question:
- Change 'Your question' to the question you want to ask. Use this method when you only have one open question.
- When you have multiple open questions, it is smart to make a variable for this in your loop. First add a variable name to the table in your loop, for example 'question'. Now add in your questions underneath. Go back to your open question form and change 'Your question' to [question]. OpenSesame reads everything between [ ] as a variable (this is sensitive for capital letters!). Now you programmed the open question form to show the questions you added to your loop!
Multiple choice questions:
To add a multiple choice form, click on the '+' in the sequence, and choose 'append new item' and 'form_multiple_choice'. Edit it by clicking the element in the overview. Choose a form title, such as 'Pick an answer', and a button text, such as 'Ok'.
To add your question, add in your variable [question] again. OpenSesame reads everything between [ ] as a variable (this is sensitive for capital letters!).
Add your anwer options to the second box. Seperate the different options by using enter.
Now you added your multiple choice question and its answer options!
If you have trouble selectively running your questions (meaning: only showing specific questions in a specific question form; openquestions in the openquestion-form, multiple choice questions in the multiple choice question-form, etc.). Check out my blog on how to fix this!
Questions? Let me know in the contribution section!
Want to learn more about OpenSesame? Follow me by clicking the '+ Follow' button right next to this post!
How to selectively run questions in OpenSesame
When using different question-forms in your experiment, you need to select the questions you want to run in that specific form. Otherwise your questions will be ran multiple types, but in different question-forms. This can be fixed easily in OpenSesame, by following these steps:
1. Add the variable 'questiontype' to your loop. In this variable, you link each question in your loop to a certain question type. For example:
question questiontype
- What is your gender? mc
- What is your opinion on OpenSesame? open
In this example, the blue words represent the variables. As you can see, both questions are now linked to a specifiek questiontype code. Here I used 'mc' for the multiple choice questions, and 'open' for the open questions. You can use any code you want, as long as you are consistent in the use of it.
2. Open the sequence in your overview. In the table you see all your different question-forms, and a 'run if' option next to it. By changing the value in this run if option, you can contol when each question form should be used.
Using previous example, change 'always' to '[questiontype]='mc' for the multiple choice question form, and [questiontype]='open' for the open question form. OpenSesame reads everything between [ ] as a variable (this is sensitive for capital letters!).
To avoid errors, make sure you use the exact same variable and questiontype in both the loop and sequence.
Now your questions should run in only your selected questiontype!
Questions? Let me know in the contribution section!
Want to learn more about OpenSesame? Follow me by clicking the '+ Follow' button right next to this post!
How to save your data in OpenSesame
Saving your data is probably one of the most important parts of running an experiment. OpenSesame does not do this automatically, you must instruct it to do this. This can be done by following the following two steps:
1. In your sequence, add a logger. This can be done by clicking the green '+' button and selecting 'logger'.
2. (a) Now you must instruct the logger on what variables to save. It is recommended to log all variables. In your overview, select 'new_logger' and check the option 'Log all variables'.
(b) You can also choose to only log selected variables. This can be done by clicking 'Add custom variable' and adding in the variables you want to save.
Now your data will be saved to your documents when a participant completes the experiment!
Questions? Let me know in the contribution section!
Want to learn more about OpenSesame? Follow me by clicking the '+ Follow' button right next to this post!
How to add pictures to your experiment in OpenSesame
Pictures can be used as stimuli in your experiment. OpenSesame allows you to add your own pictures. Your pictures have to be saved on your device for this. But how do you add your pictures to your actual experiment? By following these steps:
1. First add your pictures to the file pool. Click 'show file pool' in the taskbar. Now your file pool will appear on the right side of the screen. Click the green '+' and select the picture(s) you want to add.
2. The easiest way to add your picture is by using a sketchpad. Add a sketchpad to your experiment and adjust the parameters to your own liking.
3. In your sketchpad, click the 'draw image element' button. Now click the location you want to place your picture in the sketchpad.
4. Now your file pool will open. Select the picture you want to add.
Now your picture is added. It's that simple!
Questions? Let me know in the contribution section!
Want to learn more about OpenSesame? Follow me by clicking the '+ Follow' button right next to this post!
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