audio-keyboard-response¶

Current version: 1.1.3. See version history.

This plugin plays audio files and records responses generated with the keyboard.

If the browser supports it, audio files are played using the WebAudio API. This allows for reasonably precise timing of the playback. The timing of responses generated is measured against the WebAudio specific clock, improving the measurement of response times. If the browser does not support the WebAudio API, then the audio file is played with HTML5 audio.

Audio files can be automatically preloaded by jsPsych using the preload plugin. However, if you are using timeline variables or another dynamic method to specify the audio stimulus, then you will need to manually preload the audio.

The trial can end when the participant responds, when the audio file has finished playing, or if the participant has failed to respond within a fixed length of time. You can also prevent a keyboard response from being recorded before the audio has finished playing.

Parameters¶

In addition to the parameters available in all plugins, this plugin accepts the following parameters. Parameters with a default value of undefined must be specified. Other parameters can be left unspecified if the default value is acceptable.

Parameter	Type	Default Value	Description
stimulus	audio file	undefined	Path to audio file to be played.
choices	array of strings	`"ALL_KEYS"`	This array contains the key(s) that the participant is allowed to press in order to respond to the stimulus. Keys should be specified as characters (e.g., `'a'`, `'q'`, `' '`, `'Enter'`, `'ArrowDown'`) - see this page and this page (event.key column) for more examples. Any key presses that are not listed in the array will be ignored. The default value of `"ALL_KEYS"` means that all keys will be accepted as valid responses. Specifying `"NO_KEYS"` will mean that no responses are allowed.
prompt	string	null	This string can contain HTML markup. Any content here will be displayed below the stimulus. The intention is that it can be used to provide a reminder about the action the participant is supposed to take (e.g., which key to press).
trial_duration	numeric	null	How long to wait for the participant to make a response before ending the trial in milliseconds. If the participant fails to make a response before this timer is reached, the participant's response will be recorded as null for the trial and the trial will end. If the value of this parameter is null, then the trial will wait for a response indefinitely.
response_ends_trial	boolean	true	If true, then the trial will end whenever the participant makes a response (assuming they make their response before the cutoff specified by the `trial_duration` parameter). If false, then the trial will continue until the value for `trial_duration` is reached. You can use set this parameter to `false` to force the participant to listen to the stimulus for a fixed amount of time, even if they respond before the time is complete.
trial_ends_after_audio	boolean	false	If true, then the trial will end as soon as the audio file finishes playing.
response_allowed_while_playing	boolean	true	If true, then responses are allowed while the audio is playing. If false, then the audio must finish playing before a keyboard response is accepted. Once the audio has played all the way through, a valid keyboard response is allowed (including while the audio is being re-played via on-screen playback controls).

Data Generated¶

In addition to the default data collected by all plugins, this plugin collects the following data for each trial.

Name	Type	Value
response	string	Indicates which key the participant pressed. If no key was pressed before the trial ended, then the value will be `null`.
rt	numeric	The response time in milliseconds for the participant to make a response. The time is measured from when the stimulus first began playing until the participant made a key response. If no key was pressed before the trial ended, then the value will be `null`.
stimulus	string	Path to the audio file that played during the trial.

Simulation Mode¶

In data-only simulation mode, the response_allowed_while_playing parameter does not currently influence the simulated response time. This is because the audio file is not loaded in data-only mode and therefore the length is unknown. This may change in a future version as we improve the simulation modes.

Install¶

Using the CDN-hosted JavaScript file:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/@jspsych/plugin-audio-keyboard-response@1.1.3"></script>

Using the JavaScript file downloaded from a GitHub release dist archive:

<script src="jspsych/plugin-audio-keyboard-response.js"></script>

Using NPM:

npm install @jspsych/plugin-audio-keyboard-response

import audioKeyboardResponse from '@jspsych/plugin-audio-keyboard-response';

Examples¶

Trial continues until participant gives a response

CodeDemo

var trial = {
    type: jsPsychAudioKeyboardResponse,
    stimulus: 'sound/tone.mp3',
    choices: ['e', 'i'],
    prompt: "<p>Is the pitch high or low? Press 'e' for low and 'i' for high.</p>",
    response_ends_trial: true
};

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Play a sound with no user response; trial ends after sound plays

CodeDemo

var trial = {
    type: jsPsychAudioKeyboardResponse,
    stimulus: 'sound/tone.mp3',
    choices: "NO_KEYS",
    trial_ends_after_audio: true
};

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