Psychophysics in a Web browser? Comparing response times collected with JavaScript and Psychophysics Toolbox in a visual search task

Leeuw, Joshua de; Motz, Benjamin

doi:10.3758/s13428-015-0567-2

Cited by 208 publications

(206 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Also, some technologies have been shown to provide inaccurate timing if no countermeasures are taken (Eichstaedt, 2001). The most widely applicable technology (in terms of availability on client machines) offering millisecond resolution is JavaScript (de Leeuw, 2015;Reips & Krantz, 2010). So far, investigations using nonhuman response systems have demonstrated that JavaScript provides adequately accurate timing under most conditions (Reimers & Stewart, 2015), and a recent experiment with human response data has confirmed this conclusion (de Leeuw & Motz, 2015).…”

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confidence: 99%

Reaction time effects in lab- versus Web-based research: Experimental evidence

2015

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Although Web-based research is now commonplace, it continues to spur skepticism from reviewers and editors, especially whenever reaction times are of primary interest. Such persistent preconceptions are based on arguments referring to increased variation, the limits of certain software and technologies, and a noteworthy lack of comparisons (between Web and lab) in fully randomized experiments. To provide a critical test, participants were randomly assigned to complete a lexical decision task either (a) in the lab using standard experimental software (E-Prime), (b) in the lab using a browser-based version (written in HTML and JavaScript), or (c) via the Web using the same browser-based version. The classical word frequency effect was typical in size and corresponded to a very large effect in all three conditions. There was no indication that the Web-or browser-based data collection was in any way inferior. In fact, if anything, a larger effect was obtained in the browser-based conditions than in the condition relying on standard experimental software. No differences between Web and lab (within the browser-based conditions) could be observed, thus disconfirming any substantial influence of increased technical or situational variation. In summary, the present experiment contradicts the still common preconception that reaction time effects of only a few hundred milliseconds cannot be detected in Web experiments.Keywords Web . Internet . Response latency . Reaction time . Word frequency effect Over the past two decades, research conducted online via the Internet has become increasingly frequent. Today, Web-based research is common across the whole range of social and behavioral sciences. This trend is not surprising, given the well-documented advantages of Web-based research, especially the possibility to recruit large, heterogeneous (and more representative) samples in less time and with lower costs than in traditional lab-or paper/pencil-based research (for overviews, see

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confidence: 99%

Reaction time effects in lab- versus Web-based research: Experimental evidence

2015

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“…Research has indicated that Java Script is an adequate instrument for assessing reaction times (de Leeuw & Motz, 2015;Reimers & Stewart, 2014).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the general procedure was successfully implemented in an online environment as done in previous attempts (de Leeuw & Motz, 2015;Schubert et al, 2013), the exclusion rate with about 20% was considerably high. These exclusions were mostly based on attention checks pointing at the idea that such checks should be commonly used when recruiting participants on MTurk (Peer, Vosgerau, & Acquisti, 2014).…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting and Extending a Response Latency Measure of Inclusion of the Other in the Self

Zickfeld¹,

Schubert²

2017

Preprint

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Although the concept of inclusion of the other in the self (IOS) has been successfully assessed with explicit self-report measures implicit procedures have been neglected in past literature. The present article explores the validity of such an implicit measure by proposing several extensions and adaptions. Based on the me/not-me response latency task originally conceptualized by Aron, Aron, Tudor and Nelson (1991) we addressed methodological problems by proposing changes in material, calculation of indices and implemented the task in an online environment. We also addressed earlier problems with statistical power and proposed a more powerful way of statistical analyses using mixed models. The me/not-me task is based on the idea that higher overlap between self and other traits results in faster response times of characterizing such a trait as descriptive of the self. This relationship should be observed for close others but not for non-close others. In a sample of 339 US American adults we experimentally manipulated the nature of the target (close vs. distant) and participants engaged in the adapted me/not-me paradigm. Results indicated that trait match had a stronger negative effect on response times for participants in the close condition. The effect was also stronger for participants rating the target higher on the IOS self-report scale. We also provided convergent validity of the me/not-me procedure with other constructs ostensibly measuring interpersonal closeness. Future applications and possible limitations are discussed.

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“…We include parameters to control motion direction, coherence level, the total number of dots, dot size, dot color, background color, aperture shape, aperture size, the location of the aperture on the screen, the fixation cross, and how far dots move from one frame to the next. While our raw code can be implemented on any platform that uses JavaScript, incorporating our plugin with the jsPsych library may be particularly advantageous for researchers looking to use this RDK in experiments assessing reaction times; a comparison of reaction times assessed with jsPsych and a standard software package (e.g., PsychToolbox in MATLAB), revealed that while reaction times measured by jsPsych tended to be slightly slower than PsychToolbox, response time variability was quite comparable between both software packages [12]. This indicates that response time measurements in jsPsych are sensitive enough to detect differences caused by experimental manipulations.…”

Section: Implementation and Architecturementioning

confidence: 99%

A Random-Dot Kinematogram for Web-Based Vision Research

Rajananda¹,

Lau²,

Odegaard

2018

JORS

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Web-based experiments using visual stimuli have become increasingly common in recent years, but many frequently-used stimuli in vision research have yet to be developed for online platforms. Here, we introduce the first open access random-dot kinematogram (RDK) for use in web browsers. This fully customizable RDK offers options to implement several different types of noise (random position, random walk, random direction) and parameters to control aperture shape, coherence level, the number of dots, and other features. We include links to commented JavaScript code for easy implementation in web-based experiments, as well as an example of how this stimulus can be integrated as a plugin with a JavaScript library for online studies (jsPsych).

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Psychophysics in a Web browser? Comparing response times collected with JavaScript and Psychophysics Toolbox in a visual search task

Cited by 208 publications

References 30 publications

Reaction time effects in lab- versus Web-based research: Experimental evidence

Reaction time effects in lab- versus Web-based research: Experimental evidence

Revisiting and Extending a Response Latency Measure of Inclusion of the Other in the Self

A Random-Dot Kinematogram for Web-Based Vision Research

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