Letting audio play through after choice response

[sten_knutsen]

In our current setup, the audio stimuli are set with barrier: true, so the choice response is only available after the audio finishes playing.

If I change the audio stimuli to barrier: false, the choice response becomes available as soon as the audio starts, but selecting a response causes the audio to stop.

Is there a way to set barrier: false so that participants can make their choice while allowing the audio to continue playing until the end?

-- sten

[noah.nelson]

In our current setup, the audio stimuli are set with barrier: true, so the choice response is only available after the audio finishes playing.

If I change the audio stimuli to barrier: false, the choice response becomes available as soon as the audio starts, but selecting a response causes the audio to stop.

Is there a way to set barrier: false so that participants can make their choice while allowing the audio to continue playing until the end?

-- sten

Hi Sten!

This is interesting, thanks for the question! As a general rule, we treat "active" response types, such as the choice response, as a trigger for the end of the trial. This is the first request we've received where that behavior is not actually desired.

We have been engaging in some minor tweaks to how the ends of trials get triggered. It is possible we might be able to incorporate something that can address this issue, but we will need to investigate a bit first. Do you have a timeline for when you would need a solution for your study?

Thanks as always for using FindingFive!
 -- Noah

[Ting]

Hi Sten,

I think you'll run the risk of collecting more data you want (and a disclosure issue as well), but here's a way to hack it:

1. Include a background audio response to collect audio recording (which you should tell your participants).
2. Set its duration as relative to the audio stimulus (https://docs.findingfive.com/en/designs/...e-duration) by something like half a second (or maybe +0 could even work)
3. Add both the audio response and the choice response to the trial.

That way, the trial should behave like what you described. The core principle here is that you'll need some other response that has a "duration" parameter to prevent the trial from ending too early. The relative duration is the only trick I can think of though.

Ting

[Ting]

Hmm...now that I've described the hack, I guess the solution we can implement on our end is to introduce a "dummy" response that has a duration then! Hmm...

[sten_knutsen]

Hi Ting and Noah,

Thanks for the suggestions! It seems like the hack works — I’m getting the behavior I want — though I did things a little differently than what Ting described:

• I set the audio stimuli to barrier:false and delay:2. We’ve been using this delay because we want participants to see the image stimuli first (no delay) before hearing the audio stimuli.
  
• I set the choice responses to delay:2, so the choice buttons appear at the same time as the audio starts playing.
  
• I created a new “background audio” response with delay:0.
  
• This setup seems to give us the behavior we want. Just to clarify, we want participants to make their selection in "real time" or as "online" as possible. However, we don’t want them to learn that they can quickly skip through the study by pressing a button to advance before the audio finishes playing.
  

The only thing I don’t fully understand is why this setup works the way it does. I noticed that if I set the choice responses to delay:0, the choice buttons appear simultaneously with the image (before the audio). At that point, participants can click a button and advance to the next trial before even hearing the audio — which is not the desired behavior. So, by setting delay:2 for the choice responses (to match the onset of the audio), the issue seems resolved.

My question is: will the choice response still capture reaction times accurately — specifically, from the moment the buttons appear to when the participant makes their selection? Additionally, how is the trial's offset triggered after the choice response is made?

Thanks again for your help!

— sten