I am using the SV-1 voice key with SuperLab to conduct a verbal RT experiment. I have a few questions:
Is there a way to make the voice key portable or wireless? My experiment entails collecting data during walking, so I want the participants to hear and respond to the stimuli while walking continuously in the lab.
Can I set a delay for the interval between the participant’s response and the onset of the next stimulus? It seems kind of fast (and therefore quite difficult) – as soon as the response is detected, the next stimulus is presented. Ideally, I’d like to be able to set a variable interval between the detection of the response and the onset of the next stimulus.
I can’t work out if the microphone is extendable? On someone with a larger head, it is difficult to position the microphone so that it is not resting against the skin, and therefore “sensing” a response constantly. I can just try to fiddle with the positioning and the threshold (which seems to work so far), but thought I’d ask in case I’m missing something obvious!
First, I don’t think there is anything special about the microphone, you can probably use a wide variety of different kinds. So, I’d look for a wireless mic/headset kit with the range you need. For example, Amazon has something called the “Logitech 981-000068 ClearChat Wireless USB Headset - Black” for $82. They claim it has a range of 10 meters. Obviously, you’ll need to adjust it so it doesn’t produce artefacts. (I have no way of knowing whether it will actually work with the SV-1, but it could work.
Second, what you do to create an intertrial interval is to add an event that doesn’t do anything for the desired interval. It can just display a blank screen, for example. You can make that the first event in each trial.
Third, as I understand it, the SV-1 out of the box just uses the headphone part of the headset as decoration. That is, you can’t play any sounds through them. So you will have to feed the audio outputs of the computer to the audio inputs of the wireless transmitter, and connect the audio output of the wireless receiver to the mic input of the SV-1. I believe that if you do all that, that you can have a subject wandering around listening to audio stimuli through the wireless headset, making verbal reponses that trigger the SV-1.
If I create another event to create the intertrial interval, does this mean I can’t use stimulus lists? I want the main stimuli (which are in my list) to be randomized (that is very important), but if I intersperse another “silent” event in there, they’d all be randomized, wouldn’t they?
I don’t really know how to do this and keep the experimental stimuli randomized and ensuring that a silent event occurs between each one. Do you know how I would do this?