Online Human Experimenting


The advantage and importance of online experimenting in 2020 and beyond:


I have explored the use of many tools that are from the open-source community and of industry-standard (e.g. PsychoPy [main docum] [g scholar] / Pavlovia [git], Gorilla.sc, psytoolkit-expts , jsPsych, AWS Mechanical Turk, Web Metrics, onlinesurveys.ac.uk, MS-Teams-integrated polls, sli.do, pollev, etc etc) are now ubiquitous in terms of user-interface use. In fact, now anyone with basic Matlab/C++/etc combined with JavaScript/CSS/HTML and Visual-Studio-like frameworks, can pretty much make any web-based program to mimic these. These tools allow the collection of large amounts of data, relatively quickly and efficiently. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the need of, and hence use of (ref) web-based experimenting had largely increased, and certainly became much greater in 2020; I predict this trend will continue.


Since 2016, I have started experimenting with these tools. I personally had used free-access MS Office and Google Forms since the early 2010s. So far, since 2017, I have been using these tools (see links: view-ocnsre, x, x, x, ......), and this has resulted in data to analyse, but much of this being meaningless as paradigms themselves were yet to be ratified [see links below]. All these are to be redefined.


I also took stimuli snippets from my Unity simulation and developed another experimental study framework, this time using Python and PsychoPy, which runs the scripts on the Pavlovia.org server modules (see below). In early (Jan) 2021, I have started piloting my paradigm to collect preliminary data from people, but more is yet to be done in terms of developing the experiment further and being properly administered. This is my plan for 2021 and 2022. And at some point there will be a need for a proper sample of participants, subject to financial budgets, academic professional networking, and ethics board approval.




The problems to work with, and possible solutions to work on:


  • Controlled lab settings. There is a need for the experimenter to be present via teleconferencing to give instructions and supervise the participant, in order to mitigate the problems with common confounds.

  • Internet connection reliability & speed, CPU speed, RAM, solid drive parameters. This is especially important for fast response time tasks, where tens or hundreds of milliseconds matter. These become a problem especially with low socio-economic income groups or individuals needing access to better technologies. However, with better technologies, cheaper ones, more accessibility, etc, we ought to be able to control for all that (ref. g scholar).

  • There should technically be some few limits to the kinds of cognitive and neurological functions that can be investigated; however with VR/AR, remote tools, shipping cheap DIY equipment, and A.I. advances, we will be able to make up for that.

  • Cybersecurity and data and personal privacy - that is something else to address.


GIF references: Screen capture video recording by H Muzart, showing Psychopy study and fill-out Forms made by H Muzart, using PsychoJS/Pavlovia, Google Forms, MS Excel, etc.

Virtual 2D/3D Simulations via Websites

(i.e. browser-based)


See:


https://www.cogntech.net/#h.ftkb78wqmso3

https://www.sites.google.com/view/ProjHM-5t-1x

https://sites.google.com/view/online-cogn-neur-sci-res-expts

https://sites.google.com/view/ccnbs-research-pub



Novelty: Investigating multiple cognitive traits, by combining items of different types of salience within one 3D virtual simulation, with a variety of actionable interactions. Trying to establish a framework for an integrative computational model of emotion, different types of learning/memory processes, and decision-making.


Human data collection with Psychopy


See links below, to the prototype experiment. Some initial data collected (see Private Cloud Drive folders).


(currently in Beta testing phase - preliminary data collected, paradigm design to be amended)


Furthermore, for variables, values to change:

  • display time of stimuli

  • incongruency type/level: superimposed, blur noise, contextualised, etc, and effect on response time and accuracy

  • emotional valence incongruency, and effect on response time and accuracy

  • spatial and temporal context



Run my simulations (not all are displayed) from browsing :


https://pavlovia.org/explore?sort=DEFAULT


https://pavlovia.org/explore?sort=DEFAULT&search=Muzart




www.PsychoPy.org


www.Pavlovia.org/dashboard?tab=0


https://github.com/psychopy/psychojs



https://gitlab.pavlovia.org/Harry-Muzart


https://gitlab.pavlovia.org/Harry-Muzart-2


https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/harry-muzart/summary




Credits:

  • Psychopy/JS and Pavlovia platform , by University of Nottingham, Russell Group (UK), J Peirce et al, and Open Science Tools Ltd (2002-2021).

  • OVH (cloud data centres)

  • Gitlab (GitLab Inc)


Online Human Experimenting [Images]

Human data collection with Forms


Since 2007, I have experience of using a lot of legacy surveying/questionnaire e-tools to provide feedback data and to collect my own data for school/university work and extracurricular independent ventures. Since 2016, I have made the most out of a versatile set of tools like embedded Forum widgets, Google Forms, and Office (Microsoft) Forms, some of which is here, as a complement to other paradigm developments by me. These are based on my own adaptations/modifications to, and combinations of, existing validated sets of assessment items/questions/scales that are commonly use in clinical settings and cognitive neuroscience research (see other list listed).


Also of relevance: qualitative data and literature review process


Sample of MS Forms by H.M. :

Other

Online Human Experimenting [Images]
CognTech Main General Sections
CognTech General Spreadsheet Database