Introduction

In self-paced reading tasks, participants need to press a key to read a sentences word for word. There are different ways this can be implemented (Jegersky, 2013).

In this self-paced reading task, participants see one word at the time. Participants need to press the n key to go to the next word. All instructions are on screen.

You can add sentences to the table.

See also the incremental self-paced reading version.

About this implementation

This implementation uses text arrays to split sentences in words and numerical arrays to keep track of reaction times.

Run the demo

Click here to run a demo

Data output file

In PsyToolkit, the data output file is simply a textfile. The save line of the PsyToolkit experiment script determines what is being saved in the data output file. Typically, for each experimental trial, you would have exactly one line in your text file, and each number/word on that line gives you the information you need for your data analysis, such as the condition, response speed, and whether an error was made.

Meaning of the columns in the output datafile. You need this information for your data analysis.

Colum Meaning

1

number of words

2

the sentence used

3

the total reaction time (ms) for all words together

4-n

the reaction times for each word separately

PsyToolkit code

Click to expand the PsyToolkit script code (part of zip file below) 
table sent
  "John brought cookies for his mother"
  "Mary cooked dinner for her son"
  "Clara is looking after her pets"
  "Mickey likes to take walks with Minnie"
  "Minnie enjoys to spend time with Mickey"
  "Daisy likes gardening"

fonts
  normal arial 20
  big arial 40

task paced
  keys n
  font normal
  show text "Press the n key to start see the first word." 0 -50
  show text "Then press the n key each time for the following words." 0  50
  readkey 1 9999
  clear -1 -2
  set %%words split @1
  set $l %%words size ## how many words
  set $mycounter 1
  set &&reactionTimes clear
  font big
  while $mycounter <= $l
    show text %%words[$mycounter]
    readkey 1 9999
    clear -1
    set &&reactionTimes append RT
    set $mycounter increase
  while-end
  set $totalTime &&reactionTimes sum
  font normal
  show text "Well done...just wait until next sentence"
  delay 500
  show text ".  "  0 30
  delay 500
  show text ".. "  0 30
  delay 500
  show text "..."  0 30
  delay 500
  clear screen
  set %sentence @1
  save $l $totalTime %sentence &&reactionTimes
  
block test
  message "A self-paced reading task. Press space to continue."
  tasklist
    paced 5
  end

Download

If you have a PsyToolkit account, you can upload the zipfile directly to your PsyToolkit account. Watch a video on how to do that. If you want to upload the zipfile into your PsyToolkit account, make sure the file is not automatically uncompressed (some browsers, especially Mac Safari, by default uncompress zip files). Read here how to easily deal with this.

Further reading

  • Jegersky, J. (2013). Research Methods in Second Language Psycholinguistics. In Research Methods in Second Language Psycholinguistics by Jegerski, J. & VanPatten, B. Routledge: New York. ISBN: 9780203123430. Link to book overview.