<![CDATA[FindingFive Discussion Forum - New Study Grammar Features]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/ Wed, 15 Apr 2026 02:21:43 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[2023 Fall Study Grammar Update]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=257 Sat, 12 Aug 2023 14:28:08 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=257 Dear Researchers,


The 2023 Fall Study Grammar Update is almost here! This update contains quite a few new features and improvements that we are really excited about!


Please note:
  1. Do you use the Keypress Response type? If so, please pay special attention to item #1, as it may affect any scripts you have for processing reaction time data.
  2. As always, you MUST preview your study in full to update to the latest grammar version in order to use these features.


FindingFive servers (US and EU, in their respective local times) will be updated on the early morning of August 14, 2023 to include the following changes:


1. Reaction time data for Keypress Responses now calculated from previous keypress!


Previously, reaction time data for all keypresses recorded in a Keypress Response were calculated from the onset of the response (when the response is rendered on the trial). Based on feedback, we have decided to instead calculate the reaction time of each successive keypress relative to the preceding keypress, with the first keypress reaction time calculated from response onset.


In other words, if a participant were to strike a key every 500ms, the old reaction time data would look like this: 500, 1000, 1500, etc. It will now look like this: 500, 500, 500, etc.


2. Choice Responses now support dropdown selection!


It is now possible to organize the options of a choice response in a dropdown menu by setting the “mode” property to “dropdown”. Dropdown mode supports feedback and resetting of the choice response, but does not presently support the “multi_select” parameter (this will be made available in a future release).


A big thank you to Dr. Ming Xiang of University of Chicago for requesting this feature!


3. Tokenized Text Stimuli now support bidirectional self-paced reading!


It is now possible for participants to move both forward and backward through tokenized text stimuli. Simply set the new “bidirectional” property to true. This feature is particularly useful for backward-masked and singleton self-paced reading setups.

Please note: This feature is only possible if “self_paced” is set to true. In addition, please see the new “key_reverse” property which supplements the “key_advance” property to support custom key bindings.


A big thank you to Dr. Jeffery Green of BYU Dept. of Linguistics for requesting this feature!


4. Changes to Tokenized Text Stimulus instructions


With the addition of bidirectional tokenized text stimuli, we are deprecating the old “key_advance_instruction” property in favor of a new “hint” property. This aligns key advance instructions across tokenized text and audio stimuli.


Please note: Studies employing the old property should continue to work for now, but we do not actively support deprecated features.


5. A bug fix affecting the recording of Response Mode in the results CSV


A bug affecting how “response_mode” was recorded in the results.csv file of a completed session or study preview from grammar version 3.5.0 has been fixed. The response mode is now correctly recorded.


Questions?
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]> Dear Researchers,


The 2023 Fall Study Grammar Update is almost here! This update contains quite a few new features and improvements that we are really excited about!


Please note:
  1. Do you use the Keypress Response type? If so, please pay special attention to item #1, as it may affect any scripts you have for processing reaction time data.
  2. As always, you MUST preview your study in full to update to the latest grammar version in order to use these features.


FindingFive servers (US and EU, in their respective local times) will be updated on the early morning of August 14, 2023 to include the following changes:


1. Reaction time data for Keypress Responses now calculated from previous keypress!


Previously, reaction time data for all keypresses recorded in a Keypress Response were calculated from the onset of the response (when the response is rendered on the trial). Based on feedback, we have decided to instead calculate the reaction time of each successive keypress relative to the preceding keypress, with the first keypress reaction time calculated from response onset.


In other words, if a participant were to strike a key every 500ms, the old reaction time data would look like this: 500, 1000, 1500, etc. It will now look like this: 500, 500, 500, etc.


2. Choice Responses now support dropdown selection!


It is now possible to organize the options of a choice response in a dropdown menu by setting the “mode” property to “dropdown”. Dropdown mode supports feedback and resetting of the choice response, but does not presently support the “multi_select” parameter (this will be made available in a future release).


A big thank you to Dr. Ming Xiang of University of Chicago for requesting this feature!


3. Tokenized Text Stimuli now support bidirectional self-paced reading!


It is now possible for participants to move both forward and backward through tokenized text stimuli. Simply set the new “bidirectional” property to true. This feature is particularly useful for backward-masked and singleton self-paced reading setups.

Please note: This feature is only possible if “self_paced” is set to true. In addition, please see the new “key_reverse” property which supplements the “key_advance” property to support custom key bindings.


A big thank you to Dr. Jeffery Green of BYU Dept. of Linguistics for requesting this feature!


4. Changes to Tokenized Text Stimulus instructions


With the addition of bidirectional tokenized text stimuli, we are deprecating the old “key_advance_instruction” property in favor of a new “hint” property. This aligns key advance instructions across tokenized text and audio stimuli.


Please note: Studies employing the old property should continue to work for now, but we do not actively support deprecated features.


5. A bug fix affecting the recording of Response Mode in the results CSV


A bug affecting how “response_mode” was recorded in the results.csv file of a completed session or study preview from grammar version 3.5.0 has been fixed. The response mode is now correctly recorded.


Questions?
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]> <![CDATA[2022 Fall Study Grammar Update!]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=241 Wed, 09 Nov 2022 14:02:37 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=241
The 2022 Fall Study Grammar Update is almost here! This update contains quite a few new features and improvements that we are really excited about! FindingFive servers (US and EU, in their respective local times) will be updated on the early morning of Friday, November 11, 2022 to include the following changes:

1. Major Upgrade - Stimulus files are now bundled with launched sessions!

We have implemented a groundbreaking solution that addresses multiple pain points in running experiments with stimulus files. Starting with this grammar update, stimulus files are now bundled with launched sessions, instead of being dynamically sourced from "Resource Files" storage. This has a number of advantages:
  • You can edit, replace, or even remove stimulus files in your account (under "Resource Files") after a session is launched. Such actions won't affect the active session because copies of the stimulus files have already been bundled together with the launched session.
  • The rendered experiment in a launched session will generally load faster as bundled stimulus files are saved into our distributed cloud infrastructure, as compared to a centralized database. 
  • We will soon be able to introduce a "time capsule" function, where you can duplicate the exact settings of a previous session, even using stimulus files that have been bundled with that session.
Please note: you MUST launch your session with the latest grammar version to use this feature. If your session is launched with grammar version 3.3.0 or lower, stimulus files will NOT be bundled with sessions.

2. Feature Enhancements and Bug Fixes to the Rating Response

The rating response has gained the following new features:
  • A new "target" property which allows accuracy determination on individual rating responses (when applicable) and/or in evaluating accuracy for conditionally branched procedures.
  • A new "target_sum" property which requires the sum of ratings in a multi-row rating response to add up to a certain number (our thanks to Souad Kheder of University of Florida for suggestion this feature)
The rating response also has a bugfix:
  • When used with multiple rows, the rating response no longer momentarily flashes all rows in the beginning under the Safari browser. This issue did not affect Firefox or Chrome users.
3. Forcing the Display Language of an Experiment

It is now possible to force the Display Language of a FindingFive experiment - i.e., the language used in system-provided components, such as the greeting page, continue button, pop-up messages, and etc. This is done via setting the new "language" property in the procedure of an experiment.

4. Update to the Choice Response

The choice response can now be configured to also report the location of choice response options via the new "record_location" property. This can be especially useful in cases where the locations of response options are randomly sampled. (Our thanks to Bissera Ivanova of UNIVERSITE D-AIX-MARSEILLE for suggesting this feature!)

5. Minor Updates to the Overall Theme of an Experiment

We are in the process of gradually updating the overall style of a FindingFive experiment. In this update, you'll see:
  • The cover page of an experiment has been updated to better confirm with the design language of the rest of FindingFive.
  • The base font of an experiment has been updated to use the same font as the rest of FindingFive.
6. Prompts for Directing Participants to Subsequent Studies in a Prerequisite Chain

FindingFive now displays a list of "Recommended Follow-up Studies" at the end of an experiment, if the experiment is a prerequisite (as configured in the Session Wizard) of another experiment. (Our thanks to Ariel Chan of UCLA for suggesting this feature!)

Questions?
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]>
The 2022 Fall Study Grammar Update is almost here! This update contains quite a few new features and improvements that we are really excited about! FindingFive servers (US and EU, in their respective local times) will be updated on the early morning of Friday, November 11, 2022 to include the following changes:

1. Major Upgrade - Stimulus files are now bundled with launched sessions!

We have implemented a groundbreaking solution that addresses multiple pain points in running experiments with stimulus files. Starting with this grammar update, stimulus files are now bundled with launched sessions, instead of being dynamically sourced from "Resource Files" storage. This has a number of advantages:
  • You can edit, replace, or even remove stimulus files in your account (under "Resource Files") after a session is launched. Such actions won't affect the active session because copies of the stimulus files have already been bundled together with the launched session.
  • The rendered experiment in a launched session will generally load faster as bundled stimulus files are saved into our distributed cloud infrastructure, as compared to a centralized database. 
  • We will soon be able to introduce a "time capsule" function, where you can duplicate the exact settings of a previous session, even using stimulus files that have been bundled with that session.
Please note: you MUST launch your session with the latest grammar version to use this feature. If your session is launched with grammar version 3.3.0 or lower, stimulus files will NOT be bundled with sessions.

2. Feature Enhancements and Bug Fixes to the Rating Response

The rating response has gained the following new features:
  • A new "target" property which allows accuracy determination on individual rating responses (when applicable) and/or in evaluating accuracy for conditionally branched procedures.
  • A new "target_sum" property which requires the sum of ratings in a multi-row rating response to add up to a certain number (our thanks to Souad Kheder of University of Florida for suggestion this feature)
The rating response also has a bugfix:
  • When used with multiple rows, the rating response no longer momentarily flashes all rows in the beginning under the Safari browser. This issue did not affect Firefox or Chrome users.
3. Forcing the Display Language of an Experiment

It is now possible to force the Display Language of a FindingFive experiment - i.e., the language used in system-provided components, such as the greeting page, continue button, pop-up messages, and etc. This is done via setting the new "language" property in the procedure of an experiment.

4. Update to the Choice Response

The choice response can now be configured to also report the location of choice response options via the new "record_location" property. This can be especially useful in cases where the locations of response options are randomly sampled. (Our thanks to Bissera Ivanova of UNIVERSITE D-AIX-MARSEILLE for suggesting this feature!)

5. Minor Updates to the Overall Theme of an Experiment

We are in the process of gradually updating the overall style of a FindingFive experiment. In this update, you'll see:
  • The cover page of an experiment has been updated to better confirm with the design language of the rest of FindingFive.
  • The base font of an experiment has been updated to use the same font as the rest of FindingFive.
6. Prompts for Directing Participants to Subsequent Studies in a Prerequisite Chain

FindingFive now displays a list of "Recommended Follow-up Studies" at the end of an experiment, if the experiment is a prerequisite (as configured in the Session Wizard) of another experiment. (Our thanks to Ariel Chan of UCLA for suggesting this feature!)

Questions?
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]> <![CDATA[2022 Summer Study Grammar Update!]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=234 Fri, 12 Aug 2022 15:03:58 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=234
We are excited to announce the availability of the 2022 Summer Study Grammar Update! FindingFive servers (US and EU) will be updated on the early morning of Monday August 15, 2022 to include the following changes:

A Completely Redesigned Multi-row Rating Response

The newly designed rating response now supports presenting multiple questions (i.e., rows of ratings) in a single response. This can be quite handy if you are interested in asking participants to rate on multiple properties of a stimulus (e.g., the shape, size, and color of an object). Previously, you'd need to create three rating responses and stack them awkwardly on the same trial - well, that kind of hassle is no longer necessary!


.png   Screen Shot 2022-08-12 at 11.19.15 AM.png (Size: 49.72 KB / Downloads: 14)

Additionally, you'll find the redesigned rating response to be aesthetically more pleasing and congruent with the overall theme of FindingFive.

New Audio Recording Tricks
The audio response and the background audio response can now do the following two nifty tricks:
  • Automatically trimming the leading silence of a recording
  • Automatically stopping a recording when participants stop speaking (heuristically determined)
Using these two features will implicitly turn on the onset detection feature, and you can adjust the onset sensitivity value to experiment with these two new features beyond the default settings.

Questions?
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]>
We are excited to announce the availability of the 2022 Summer Study Grammar Update! FindingFive servers (US and EU) will be updated on the early morning of Monday August 15, 2022 to include the following changes:

A Completely Redesigned Multi-row Rating Response

The newly designed rating response now supports presenting multiple questions (i.e., rows of ratings) in a single response. This can be quite handy if you are interested in asking participants to rate on multiple properties of a stimulus (e.g., the shape, size, and color of an object). Previously, you'd need to create three rating responses and stack them awkwardly on the same trial - well, that kind of hassle is no longer necessary!


.png   Screen Shot 2022-08-12 at 11.19.15 AM.png (Size: 49.72 KB / Downloads: 14)

Additionally, you'll find the redesigned rating response to be aesthetically more pleasing and congruent with the overall theme of FindingFive.

New Audio Recording Tricks
The audio response and the background audio response can now do the following two nifty tricks:
  • Automatically trimming the leading silence of a recording
  • Automatically stopping a recording when participants stop speaking (heuristically determined)
Using these two features will implicitly turn on the onset detection feature, and you can adjust the onset sensitivity value to experiment with these two new features beyond the default settings.

Questions?
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]> <![CDATA[February Study Grammar Update - 2/14/2022]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=194 Fri, 11 Feb 2022 22:48:53 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=194
We are excited to announce the availability of the February Study Grammar Update! FindingFive servers (US and EU) will be updated on the early morning of Monday 2/14/2022 to include the following changes:

New Features:
  • Carryover response - it is now possible to use participant responses collected on previous trials as stimuli in later blocks of an experiment. This feature can be especially useful for paradigms where the participant is asked to review or judge their own responses in perception or decision-making tasks.

    Please refer to our new tutorial for how to use this feature.

  • Extended speech recognition support - studies that use the speech recognition feature in audio responses are now open to more browsers, including Firefox and Safari on desktop or laptop computers. Previously Chrome was the only browser that participants can use for these studies.

Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where trials with stimuli using the barrier feature and an audio response would experience unexpected jumpiness during the trial.
  • Fixed an issue where participants couldn't start a study using Firefox on an iPhone or iPad.
Improvements:
  • Better styling for requirement messages that participants see at the beginning of an experiment.
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]>
We are excited to announce the availability of the February Study Grammar Update! FindingFive servers (US and EU) will be updated on the early morning of Monday 2/14/2022 to include the following changes:

New Features:
  • Carryover response - it is now possible to use participant responses collected on previous trials as stimuli in later blocks of an experiment. This feature can be especially useful for paradigms where the participant is asked to review or judge their own responses in perception or decision-making tasks.

    Please refer to our new tutorial for how to use this feature.

  • Extended speech recognition support - studies that use the speech recognition feature in audio responses are now open to more browsers, including Firefox and Safari on desktop or laptop computers. Previously Chrome was the only browser that participants can use for these studies.

Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where trials with stimuli using the barrier feature and an audio response would experience unexpected jumpiness during the trial.
  • Fixed an issue where participants couldn't start a study using Firefox on an iPhone or iPad.
Improvements:
  • Better styling for requirement messages that participants see at the beginning of an experiment.
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]> <![CDATA[January Study Grammar Update - 1/18/2022]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=188 Mon, 17 Jan 2022 01:43:23 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=188
We are excited to announce the availability of the January Grammar Update! Due to the MLK holiday on Monday 1/17/2022, this update will be made first available on our testing server (https://testing.findingfive.com - US server accounts only) on Monday 1/17/2022, and then on the production servers (https://www.findingfive.com or https://eu.findingfive.com) on Tuesday, 1/18/2022.

This January update mostly consists of bug fixes and a minor feature tweak:

Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where a text response with a "max_char" setting would require an extra click in the text box before participants could enter their response.
  • Fixed an issue where the duration timer of a choice response continued counting while the choice response displays visual feedback (if feedback is set). The duration timer now stops as soon as a choice is made by participants, before the feedback is shown.
Improvements:
  • Introduce a new "duration_timer_onset" property for customizing when the duration timer appears in responses that have "duration_timer" set to true. By default, the onset is "start" meaning that the duration timer appears as soon as the response is visible. It can be optionally set to "end" so that the timer only appears as a participant response is recorded. The "end" mode may be better suited for typical speeded task setups. 
New Features:
  • No major new features are included in this update.
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]>
We are excited to announce the availability of the January Grammar Update! Due to the MLK holiday on Monday 1/17/2022, this update will be made first available on our testing server (https://testing.findingfive.com - US server accounts only) on Monday 1/17/2022, and then on the production servers (https://www.findingfive.com or https://eu.findingfive.com) on Tuesday, 1/18/2022.

This January update mostly consists of bug fixes and a minor feature tweak:

Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where a text response with a "max_char" setting would require an extra click in the text box before participants could enter their response.
  • Fixed an issue where the duration timer of a choice response continued counting while the choice response displays visual feedback (if feedback is set). The duration timer now stops as soon as a choice is made by participants, before the feedback is shown.
Improvements:
  • Introduce a new "duration_timer_onset" property for customizing when the duration timer appears in responses that have "duration_timer" set to true. By default, the onset is "start" meaning that the duration timer appears as soon as the response is visible. It can be optionally set to "end" so that the timer only appears as a participant response is recorded. The "end" mode may be better suited for typical speeded task setups. 
New Features:
  • No major new features are included in this update.
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]> <![CDATA[December Grammar Update - 12/27/2021]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=181 Tue, 21 Dec 2021 16:50:23 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=181
We are excited to announce the availability of the December Study Grammar update, to be effective on December 27, 2021! For December, we are bringing a host of new features and optimizations:

New Features
  • Beta Support for Safari on MacOS, and all browsers on iOS and PadOS: The FindingFive website is now fully accessible to both participants and researchers using the Safari browser on MacOS as well as all mobile browsers on iOS and PadOS. The support for Apple devices and software is currently in beta, meaning that some bugs may exist.

    For participants to be able to use Safari to participate in your study, you must launch a new session.     Existing active sessions are still closed to Safari users, and will only work with Firefox or Chrome on a desktop or laptop.

  • Dark Mode: It is now possible to display trial content using the dark mode (black background and white text) by setting the color scheme of a trial to "dark". 

  • Duration timer: It is now possible to display a duration timer for visible responses, indicating how long participants have spent on that response. Please check out the documentation on responses for details.

Bug fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where the visual feedback for clickable images or videos isn't properly displayed
  • Fixed an issue where studies with identical duration settings for the trial and a response within the trial were permitted to run. This setup will result in a so-called racing condition, and is now banned. 
Other changes:
  • Internal updates to the text, mouse_reset, mouse_position, and the keypress responses to improve the responsiveness of these responses and the precision of reaction time calculation.
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]>
We are excited to announce the availability of the December Study Grammar update, to be effective on December 27, 2021! For December, we are bringing a host of new features and optimizations:

New Features
  • Beta Support for Safari on MacOS, and all browsers on iOS and PadOS: The FindingFive website is now fully accessible to both participants and researchers using the Safari browser on MacOS as well as all mobile browsers on iOS and PadOS. The support for Apple devices and software is currently in beta, meaning that some bugs may exist.

    For participants to be able to use Safari to participate in your study, you must launch a new session.     Existing active sessions are still closed to Safari users, and will only work with Firefox or Chrome on a desktop or laptop.

  • Dark Mode: It is now possible to display trial content using the dark mode (black background and white text) by setting the color scheme of a trial to "dark". 

  • Duration timer: It is now possible to display a duration timer for visible responses, indicating how long participants have spent on that response. Please check out the documentation on responses for details.

Bug fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where the visual feedback for clickable images or videos isn't properly displayed
  • Fixed an issue where studies with identical duration settings for the trial and a response within the trial were permitted to run. This setup will result in a so-called racing condition, and is now banned. 
Other changes:
  • Internal updates to the text, mouse_reset, mouse_position, and the keypress responses to improve the responsiveness of these responses and the precision of reaction time calculation.
If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]> <![CDATA[November Study Grammar Update - 11/8/2021]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=169 Sun, 07 Nov 2021 16:17:31 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=169
We are excited to release FindingFive' November Study Grammar update! Going forward, we will adopt a semi-regular monthly updating schedule for our study grammar, barring any emergency bug fixes. For November, we are bringing these following new features and changes, to be effective on Monday, November 8, 2021:

New Features
  • Checking for the presence of external mouses: For studies that use the "mouse position" response to achieve mouse tracking, FindingFive will now automatically detect if participants are using a touch-only device (which can't really be used for mouse tracking). Participants will be asked to attach an external pointing device (a trackpad or a mouse) to their computer before being allowed to continue. 

    A (very amateurish) YouTube video demonstrating an early prototype of this feature can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drbsu1K3CfQ

    Backward incompatibility warning: If you currently have an active session using the mouse position response, you must stop them as they will cease to work properly. Please preview your study under the new grammar and launch it again. 

  • Built-in mic check: For studies using the audio response or the background audio response, a built-in "mic check" process will now be automatically added to the beginning of a study. Participants must first test their mic to make sure there is detectable audio input before being allowed to continue. This will effectively prevent participants with an unknowingly broken microphone from taking the study.

Bug fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where multiple audio players may appear if participants re-record themselves with the audio response.
Other changes:
  • There are no other changes.

If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]>
We are excited to release FindingFive' November Study Grammar update! Going forward, we will adopt a semi-regular monthly updating schedule for our study grammar, barring any emergency bug fixes. For November, we are bringing these following new features and changes, to be effective on Monday, November 8, 2021:

New Features
  • Checking for the presence of external mouses: For studies that use the "mouse position" response to achieve mouse tracking, FindingFive will now automatically detect if participants are using a touch-only device (which can't really be used for mouse tracking). Participants will be asked to attach an external pointing device (a trackpad or a mouse) to their computer before being allowed to continue. 

    A (very amateurish) YouTube video demonstrating an early prototype of this feature can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drbsu1K3CfQ

    Backward incompatibility warning: If you currently have an active session using the mouse position response, you must stop them as they will cease to work properly. Please preview your study under the new grammar and launch it again. 

  • Built-in mic check: For studies using the audio response or the background audio response, a built-in "mic check" process will now be automatically added to the beginning of a study. Participants must first test their mic to make sure there is detectable audio input before being allowed to continue. This will effectively prevent participants with an unknowingly broken microphone from taking the study.

Bug fixes:
  • Fixed an issue where multiple audio players may appear if participants re-record themselves with the audio response.
Other changes:
  • There are no other changes.

If you have any questions regarding this grammar update, please leave your comments below. Thanks!]]> <![CDATA[Study Grammar update 10/18: Introducing the Photo Response!]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=162 Mon, 18 Oct 2021 01:14:00 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=162
We are excited to announce the availability of a brand new response - the Photo Response! The photo response allows participants to take a picture with either a webcam (if they are using a laptop or desktop) or the built-in front-facing camera in their mobile devices. 

Start using the photo response
Using the photo response is as easy as adding a new response of the type "photo" to your study:


.png   Screen Shot 2021-10-17 at 8.37.28 PM.png (Size: 50.93 KB / Downloads: 15)

That's it! Participants will be prompted to take a picture (of themselves or anything else) and the resulting images will be available as JPG files in the downloadable ZIP after your session is complete.

Optional tweaks
If you wish to make tweaks such as changing the size of the output picture size, or horizontally flipping the image, please take a look at the documentation on the photo response.

For any questions or comments, please leave them here as a reply! Thanks!]]>
We are excited to announce the availability of a brand new response - the Photo Response! The photo response allows participants to take a picture with either a webcam (if they are using a laptop or desktop) or the built-in front-facing camera in their mobile devices. 

Start using the photo response
Using the photo response is as easy as adding a new response of the type "photo" to your study:


.png   Screen Shot 2021-10-17 at 8.37.28 PM.png (Size: 50.93 KB / Downloads: 15)

That's it! Participants will be prompted to take a picture (of themselves or anything else) and the resulting images will be available as JPG files in the downloadable ZIP after your session is complete.

Optional tweaks
If you wish to make tweaks such as changing the size of the output picture size, or horizontally flipping the image, please take a look at the documentation on the photo response.

For any questions or comments, please leave them here as a reply! Thanks!]]> <![CDATA[Major Study Grammar Update 9/13]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=146 Fri, 10 Sep 2021 14:14:49 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=146
The FindingFive Study Grammar is updated on Monday, September 13, 2021 to include the following new features, bugfixes, and other changes. 

New Features
  • FindingFive studies will now run on Android mobile browsers! Yep - that's right: you can now design your study just once and it'll run on desktops, laptops, Android phones, and Android tablets! iPhone and iPad support will be introduced in early 2022 as well.

    Not only the studies themselves can run on small screens now, most participant-facing pages (including signin, study list, single study details page) are also optimized for mobile devices. As a result, if a participant gets a link to your study, they can complete the entire participation process on a mobile device.

    Researchers will still need to design studies on a desktop or laptop, but you'll be able to preview the study on mobile devices now as well.

  • Improved pseudorandom stimulus pattern: It is now possible to assign multiple values to a custom stimulus attribute and perform
    pseudorandomization on the trial template(s) containing stimuli with this custom attribute.

  • Hide the "Press X" hint in a choice response: It is now possible to hide such a hint, which is normally displayed below the buttons, by adding "hint": false to a choice response.

  • Always show the "Response Received" confirmation at the end of a trial: It is now possible to always show this message, which by default only shows up when FindingFive is syncing participant data to the server. To manually turn this on, add "response_receipt": true to the corresponding trial templates. 
Bug fixes
  • In some cases, the keypress response did not accept key presses that are defined in a whitelist. This has now been fixed.
Other changes
  • No other notable changes in this update
]]>
The FindingFive Study Grammar is updated on Monday, September 13, 2021 to include the following new features, bugfixes, and other changes. 

New Features
  • FindingFive studies will now run on Android mobile browsers! Yep - that's right: you can now design your study just once and it'll run on desktops, laptops, Android phones, and Android tablets! iPhone and iPad support will be introduced in early 2022 as well.

    Not only the studies themselves can run on small screens now, most participant-facing pages (including signin, study list, single study details page) are also optimized for mobile devices. As a result, if a participant gets a link to your study, they can complete the entire participation process on a mobile device.

    Researchers will still need to design studies on a desktop or laptop, but you'll be able to preview the study on mobile devices now as well.

  • Improved pseudorandom stimulus pattern: It is now possible to assign multiple values to a custom stimulus attribute and perform
    pseudorandomization on the trial template(s) containing stimuli with this custom attribute.

  • Hide the "Press X" hint in a choice response: It is now possible to hide such a hint, which is normally displayed below the buttons, by adding "hint": false to a choice response.

  • Always show the "Response Received" confirmation at the end of a trial: It is now possible to always show this message, which by default only shows up when FindingFive is syncing participant data to the server. To manually turn this on, add "response_receipt": true to the corresponding trial templates. 
Bug fixes
  • In some cases, the keypress response did not accept key presses that are defined in a whitelist. This has now been fixed.
Other changes
  • No other notable changes in this update
]]> <![CDATA[Minor Study Grammar Update 08/18/2021]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=137 Thu, 19 Aug 2021 13:32:37 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=137
The FindingFive Study Grammar has been updated to include the following new features, bugfixes, and other minor changes.

New Features Bug fixes
  • No bug fixes in this update
Other changes
  • If a study features audio recording or other actions that require microphone access, the way that participants are asked to share their microphone access is now more intuitive to participants. 
  • If a participant uses a keyboard with media control keys like "Play" and "Stop", pressing those keys will no longer have an effect on audio and video stimuli.
]]>
The FindingFive Study Grammar has been updated to include the following new features, bugfixes, and other minor changes.

New Features Bug fixes
  • No bug fixes in this update
Other changes
  • If a study features audio recording or other actions that require microphone access, the way that participants are asked to share their microphone access is now more intuitive to participants. 
  • If a participant uses a keyboard with media control keys like "Play" and "Stop", pressing those keys will no longer have an effect on audio and video stimuli.
]]> <![CDATA[Support for setting "barrier" on text and image stimuli]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=127 Thu, 22 Jul 2021 15:11:14 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=127
We are happy to announce a minor feature addition to FindingFive's study grammar: it is now possible to set "barrier" on text and image stimuli! 

What's Barrier?
If you haven't heard of barrier and its function in building adapative experiments yet, please check out this tutorial: https://news.findingfive.com/2019/04/23/...-barriers/

A hypothetical setup: display two text stimuli in order
Imagine that you are displaying two text stimuli on the same trial, where the first text stimulus should stay on the screen for 3 seconds, and then the second stimulus will show up. 

This can already be done without this new barrier support for text stimuli, but it comes with some hassle and inflexibility. Essentially, you'll need to set a duration of 3 seconds to the first stimulus, which controls how long the first stimulus is visible, AND a delay of 3 seconds for the second stimulus, which tells the second stimulus not to show up when the first stimulus is visible. This is a little clumsy - we had to modify two stimuli to achieve this functionality. Moreover, if the duration of the first stimulus is variable across trials, this will get out of control: we would need to create many duplicate versions of the second stimulus, each with a different delay setting to accommodate the duration of the first stimulus!

Barrier solves this problem
Now with the newly introduced barrier support for text and image stimuli, this can be easily done. All you need to do is to add to the first stimulus a barrier setting in addition to the duration one, like this:

Code:
"barrier": true,
"duration": 3

This tells FindingFive to display the first stimulus for 3 seconds, and bars all subsequent stimuli or responses from showing up until the duration is over. In other words, the barrier function allows you to avoid changing the definition of all following elements, stimulus or response, on the same trial. Overall, such a setup offers a cleaner flow and more predictable trial behavior.

Documentation page is updated
You can find the new entry on "barrier" for the text stimulus and similarly for the image stimulus.

Questions?
Leave your comments below if you have questions about this new feature!]]>
We are happy to announce a minor feature addition to FindingFive's study grammar: it is now possible to set "barrier" on text and image stimuli! 

What's Barrier?
If you haven't heard of barrier and its function in building adapative experiments yet, please check out this tutorial: https://news.findingfive.com/2019/04/23/...-barriers/

A hypothetical setup: display two text stimuli in order
Imagine that you are displaying two text stimuli on the same trial, where the first text stimulus should stay on the screen for 3 seconds, and then the second stimulus will show up. 

This can already be done without this new barrier support for text stimuli, but it comes with some hassle and inflexibility. Essentially, you'll need to set a duration of 3 seconds to the first stimulus, which controls how long the first stimulus is visible, AND a delay of 3 seconds for the second stimulus, which tells the second stimulus not to show up when the first stimulus is visible. This is a little clumsy - we had to modify two stimuli to achieve this functionality. Moreover, if the duration of the first stimulus is variable across trials, this will get out of control: we would need to create many duplicate versions of the second stimulus, each with a different delay setting to accommodate the duration of the first stimulus!

Barrier solves this problem
Now with the newly introduced barrier support for text and image stimuli, this can be easily done. All you need to do is to add to the first stimulus a barrier setting in addition to the duration one, like this:

Code:
"barrier": true,
"duration": 3

This tells FindingFive to display the first stimulus for 3 seconds, and bars all subsequent stimuli or responses from showing up until the duration is over. In other words, the barrier function allows you to avoid changing the definition of all following elements, stimulus or response, on the same trial. Overall, such a setup offers a cleaner flow and more predictable trial behavior.

Documentation page is updated
You can find the new entry on "barrier" for the text stimulus and similarly for the image stimulus.

Questions?
Leave your comments below if you have questions about this new feature!]]> <![CDATA[Experimental support for speech recognition now available]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=109 Fri, 21 May 2021 14:57:30 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=109
We are *very* excited to tell you about a new cool grammar feature: SPEECH RECOGNITION in audio responses. With speech recognition, FindingFive will automatically transcribe participants' audio recordings for you! For the time being, it only works with English, but we are exploring the possibility of enabling other languages as well.

Highly experimental (Must Read)
Speech recognition on FindingFive is implemented by using a closed-source and yet openly accessible speech-to-text technology provided by Google for everyone to use. Because this technology is provided to everyone for free, Google offers no guarantee whatsoever on its accuracy or reliability. As a result, FindingFive cannot offer any guarantee either. 

In addition, this feature is "rate limited", meaning that Google may suddenly deny further requests to use this feature once the number of requests from a single user reaches a certain, undisclosed threshold on a daily basis. That means:
  • While you are creating and tweaking your study, the speech recognition feature may suddenly stop working because you have reached the limit. When that happens, take a break and it'll resolve itself the next day.
  • While a participant is participating your study, the speech recognition feature may stop working in the middle of the study, because the participant has hit their daily limit. The next participant, assuming they are not using the same computer as the first one, will not be affected. This limit is applied per Chrome browser installation. As a result, as long as you are not transcribing tons of audio recording in a single study, this limit is less of an issue in production studies because of the distributed nature of online testing (each participant is only restricted by their own limit)!
In summary, our advice is that please design your study in a way so that automatically transcribed speech text is the icing on the cake, rather than the cake itself! Big Grin You will always get the audio recording, even when speech recognition stops working.

Google Chrome Only
Also because the underlying speech-to-text technology is offered by Google, only participants with a Chrome browser can use it. FindingFive has implemented a robust check mechanism to prevent participants with Firefox from ever starting a study that uses speech recognition. Such participants would be asked to switch browsers before being allowed to start the study.

How to use
We have updated our Study Grammar documentation with the details, but it's very straightforward. Just add the following bit to either the audio response or the background audio response:


Code:
"speech_to_text": true

That's it! In the downloadable CSV containing participant data, you'll get both the original audio recording (saved separately as an audio file) and a transcribed text in the CSV.

Please feel free to leave your questions in this thread! We look forward to hearing your suggestions and feedback.]]>
We are *very* excited to tell you about a new cool grammar feature: SPEECH RECOGNITION in audio responses. With speech recognition, FindingFive will automatically transcribe participants' audio recordings for you! For the time being, it only works with English, but we are exploring the possibility of enabling other languages as well.

Highly experimental (Must Read)
Speech recognition on FindingFive is implemented by using a closed-source and yet openly accessible speech-to-text technology provided by Google for everyone to use. Because this technology is provided to everyone for free, Google offers no guarantee whatsoever on its accuracy or reliability. As a result, FindingFive cannot offer any guarantee either. 

In addition, this feature is "rate limited", meaning that Google may suddenly deny further requests to use this feature once the number of requests from a single user reaches a certain, undisclosed threshold on a daily basis. That means:
  • While you are creating and tweaking your study, the speech recognition feature may suddenly stop working because you have reached the limit. When that happens, take a break and it'll resolve itself the next day.
  • While a participant is participating your study, the speech recognition feature may stop working in the middle of the study, because the participant has hit their daily limit. The next participant, assuming they are not using the same computer as the first one, will not be affected. This limit is applied per Chrome browser installation. As a result, as long as you are not transcribing tons of audio recording in a single study, this limit is less of an issue in production studies because of the distributed nature of online testing (each participant is only restricted by their own limit)!
In summary, our advice is that please design your study in a way so that automatically transcribed speech text is the icing on the cake, rather than the cake itself! Big Grin You will always get the audio recording, even when speech recognition stops working.

Google Chrome Only
Also because the underlying speech-to-text technology is offered by Google, only participants with a Chrome browser can use it. FindingFive has implemented a robust check mechanism to prevent participants with Firefox from ever starting a study that uses speech recognition. Such participants would be asked to switch browsers before being allowed to start the study.

How to use
We have updated our Study Grammar documentation with the details, but it's very straightforward. Just add the following bit to either the audio response or the background audio response:


Code:
"speech_to_text": true

That's it! In the downloadable CSV containing participant data, you'll get both the original audio recording (saved separately as an audio file) and a transcribed text in the CSV.

Please feel free to leave your questions in this thread! We look forward to hearing your suggestions and feedback.]]> <![CDATA[A new way to specify duration of background audio]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=100 Thu, 29 Apr 2021 15:59:25 +0000 Grace]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=100 Researchers,
 
We are excited to announce a new way to specify the duration of a background audio response, making it possible to dynamically adapt the duration of an audio recording to the duration of multimedia stimulus content presented on the same trial as the audio response.  
 
The new feature allows researchers to specify the duration of a background audio response relative to the duration of a separate stimulus on the same trial (e.g., an audio or video stimulus). This can be particularly useful when your audio stimulus files vary in duration, and you would like to record participants adaptively - longer for longer stimuli and shorter for shorter stimuli.
 
This new property will work in conjunction with a new feature -- stimulus group -- which allows researchers to  define the group of audio stimuli to which the audio recording duration will be adjusted.  For example, when the duration of a background audio response is set as follows:

Code:
"duration": "%sgroup:audio+2.0"

The duration of the audio recording will be the duration of the stimulus of the group “audio” (or any group name that you may want to use), on the same trial as the current response, plus 2 seconds. If there are no stimuli of the group “audio” on the same trial, this duration setting will be ignored and the audio response will record indefinitely and result in a stuck trial. The minus sign “-” is also supported, if the desired goal is to record a shorter duration than the referenced stimulus.
 
For the above setup to work, the stimuli being referenced must have a group defined. In this case, each stimulus needs to be added to the “audio” group like this (if you used a different group name above, make sure to change “audio” to your group name):

Code:
"group": "audio"

*Importantly, “audio” in this example can be subbed for any phrase as long as it is consistent throughout the code.*


We hope you find this update useful! Questions? Reply to this thread and let us know!]]> Researchers,
 
We are excited to announce a new way to specify the duration of a background audio response, making it possible to dynamically adapt the duration of an audio recording to the duration of multimedia stimulus content presented on the same trial as the audio response.  
 
The new feature allows researchers to specify the duration of a background audio response relative to the duration of a separate stimulus on the same trial (e.g., an audio or video stimulus). This can be particularly useful when your audio stimulus files vary in duration, and you would like to record participants adaptively - longer for longer stimuli and shorter for shorter stimuli.
 
This new property will work in conjunction with a new feature -- stimulus group -- which allows researchers to  define the group of audio stimuli to which the audio recording duration will be adjusted.  For example, when the duration of a background audio response is set as follows:

Code:
"duration": "%sgroup:audio+2.0"

The duration of the audio recording will be the duration of the stimulus of the group “audio” (or any group name that you may want to use), on the same trial as the current response, plus 2 seconds. If there are no stimuli of the group “audio” on the same trial, this duration setting will be ignored and the audio response will record indefinitely and result in a stuck trial. The minus sign “-” is also supported, if the desired goal is to record a shorter duration than the referenced stimulus.
 
For the above setup to work, the stimuli being referenced must have a group defined. In this case, each stimulus needs to be added to the “audio” group like this (if you used a different group name above, make sure to change “audio” to your group name):

Code:
"group": "audio"

*Importantly, “audio” in this example can be subbed for any phrase as long as it is consistent throughout the code.*


We hope you find this update useful! Questions? Reply to this thread and let us know!]]> <![CDATA[New Follow-Up Responses Feature]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=91 Wed, 07 Apr 2021 14:52:33 +0000 Lila - FF Operations]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=91 Dear Researchers,
 
We are happy to announce the development of a new property within our existing trial templates: follow-up responses! Please find full documentation of this property here: https://help.findingfive.com/api/trial-templates.html?highlight=follow_up. 
 
What it does
This new property allows you to specify follow-up responses, based on participants’ initial responses to a stimulus. For example, if participants select the choice “other” in an initial response, you can use this trial template to trigger a follow-up text-box, allowing participants to explain their selection in more detail. 
 
Recommended usage
This property is recommended for situations where only follow-up responses are required. You may instead wish to branch participants into conditions with different stimuli, responses, and tasks, based on their responses in an initial trial. In these scenarios, please use our conditional branching feature instead! Details on conditional branching can be found here: https://news.findingfive.com/2021/01/08/tutorial-conditional-branching/  
 
Pain points addressed
Development of this new property means you no longer have to use conditional branching for simple follow-up responses!
 
We hope you find this new property helpful! Questions? Reply in this thread, and we will answer!]]> Dear Researchers,
 
We are happy to announce the development of a new property within our existing trial templates: follow-up responses! Please find full documentation of this property here: https://help.findingfive.com/api/trial-templates.html?highlight=follow_up. 
 
What it does
This new property allows you to specify follow-up responses, based on participants’ initial responses to a stimulus. For example, if participants select the choice “other” in an initial response, you can use this trial template to trigger a follow-up text-box, allowing participants to explain their selection in more detail. 
 
Recommended usage
This property is recommended for situations where only follow-up responses are required. You may instead wish to branch participants into conditions with different stimuli, responses, and tasks, based on their responses in an initial trial. In these scenarios, please use our conditional branching feature instead! Details on conditional branching can be found here: https://news.findingfive.com/2021/01/08/tutorial-conditional-branching/  
 
Pain points addressed
Development of this new property means you no longer have to use conditional branching for simple follow-up responses!
 
We hope you find this new property helpful! Questions? Reply in this thread, and we will answer!]]> <![CDATA[New Stimulus: Tokenized Images!]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=77 Fri, 19 Mar 2021 00:42:44 +0000 Ting]]> http://discuss.findingfive.com/showthread.php?tid=77
We are excited to announce the availability of a new stimulus type, tokenized images! The documentation on this new stimulus can be found here: https://help.findingfive.com/api/stimuli...ized_image

What it does
As the name suggests, a tokenized image stimulus can be used to display a list of images in sequence. If you have used our tokenized text or tokenized audio stimuli, the tokenized image stimulus is our effort to bring similar functionality to images.

Recommended usage
The tokenized image stimulus is best at simulating GIF-like animation, and yet with precise timing control for how long each frame / image token should be displayed. This has many uses in psychological studies. For example, in visual priming studies, it is common to present the priming image for only a split of a second, and then collect a response on the actual target image. This new stimulus will make the creation of such stimuli easy and flexible.

Pain points addressed
Before the introduction of this new stimulus, in order to present several images in sequence, researchers needed to use a trial-yoking technique that has the side effect of a "flashing screen". Using that technique also limits the options in randomizing trials at the block level. The new tokenized image stimulus can now be used instead.

Future work
The tokenized image stimulus does not support a self-paced option, unlike the tokenized text and tokenized audio stimuli. We are planning to add this support eventually. If you have a particular use for a self-paced tokenized image stimulus, please leave a reply below to let us know!]]>
We are excited to announce the availability of a new stimulus type, tokenized images! The documentation on this new stimulus can be found here: https://help.findingfive.com/api/stimuli...ized_image

What it does
As the name suggests, a tokenized image stimulus can be used to display a list of images in sequence. If you have used our tokenized text or tokenized audio stimuli, the tokenized image stimulus is our effort to bring similar functionality to images.

Recommended usage
The tokenized image stimulus is best at simulating GIF-like animation, and yet with precise timing control for how long each frame / image token should be displayed. This has many uses in psychological studies. For example, in visual priming studies, it is common to present the priming image for only a split of a second, and then collect a response on the actual target image. This new stimulus will make the creation of such stimuli easy and flexible.

Pain points addressed
Before the introduction of this new stimulus, in order to present several images in sequence, researchers needed to use a trial-yoking technique that has the side effect of a "flashing screen". Using that technique also limits the options in randomizing trials at the block level. The new tokenized image stimulus can now be used instead.

Future work
The tokenized image stimulus does not support a self-paced option, unlike the tokenized text and tokenized audio stimuli. We are planning to add this support eventually. If you have a particular use for a self-paced tokenized image stimulus, please leave a reply below to let us know!]]>