Timing of trials + embedding task in rating task

Your time_based and event_based tasks are not embedded in the rating one, in the task list they appear after. To check for a key press you need to add more code inside the rating task. We can use the readkey instruction for that. But there is a big question: when do you want participants to press a key ?

1. Before the rating (show word, wait for key press, then show the scale once a key has been pressed).
2. After the rating (show word, rate the word, wait for key press).
3. During the rating (show word, you can press a key during the rating).

Option 3 is not possible. Two instructions cannot be simultaneous: you have to be done with one of the two instructions before moving to the next one. As far as I know there is no instruction that detects if a specific key is pressed in a certain amount of time (or during a part of the code) while running the rest of the code.

For option 1 and 2, it depends on whether you want participants to press a key within the 10s time frame or not. I will assume it is the case. Have a look at the code below. I choose option 2 because the scale is your cover task and it should appear first.


The main problem with this method is that you explicitly remind participants to press a key, so your real task may be too apparent. A second problem appears if participants have to press both A and L for 1 item: readkey will only record the first pressed key. To avoid this problem, you can ask participants to press a key two times in a row, just replace the blue part with the code below.