We have divided our screen into 16 squares (by xy dimensions). On a given trial, 5 boxes light up and disappear, one by one. It is the subject’s job to use the mouse to press the boxes on the screen that match both the POSITION (that is which box in the grid) and the ORDER (that is the precise sequence that each of the boxes lit up) from the previous trial. We’ve managed to program position, but we cannot figure out a way to program order. The subjects are free to click boxes and even clear the entire screen to start over if they feel a mistake was made. In addition, the subject may click a button that says “BLANK", which allows the subject to skip a box in the sequence that cannot be remembered, without compromising the recalled order of later boxes in the sequence. When a subject clicks inside a box, the box turns red and a number appears inside the box. This number corresponds to the order in which the box was clicked (Ex. The first box clicked will turn red and contain a 1, the second box clicked will turn red and contain a 2, etc.). When the “BLANK” button is pressed, the next number in the order is skipped (Ex. The first box clicked will turn red and contain a 1, the “BLANK” button is pressed indicating a skipped location/position, then, the next box pressed by the participant will turn red and contain a 3, for it represents the third box presented in the original sequence).
This interactivity with the matrix serves as a means for the subject to keep track of the position and order of the boxes he/she has previously clicked and for researchers to record all mouse clicks by the subject, with each click being recorded for correct/incorrect order. Because the subject can freely click any quantity of boxes in any order, we need to capture every possible box click that can be made the subject; that is, with 16 total squares, each box should have to potential to light up and present any number 1-16 according to the order in which it was clicked, regardless of whether it was a correct or incorrect answer according to position and order.
To reiterate, the subject also needs to be able to insert a blank placeholder to allow he/she to continue recalling box locations further into the sequence when he/she cannot recall a single box position. How can this interactivity be programmed using Superlab 4.0? Keep in mind that we also need to be able to record and view the data corresponding with both correct and incorrect responses for the position and order of boxes clicked in relation to the original trial.