Nested conditional timelines.

[CayoPigeon]

Hi everyone! Thank you in advance for reading this out. I'm doing an experiment where i measure the affect produced by the performance on a Q&A General Knowledge task. The idea is that the participant should be able to select the difficulty level of the questions. They get to choose between "easier", "same" or "harder". Which means, that the array where i have stored all the trials of a certain difficulty should display the "next set of questions" if the previous block was of the same difficulty level. Each block consists of 5 questions. I have 10 stored on the array for each difficulty. What would you do to change the index of the array depending on whether the previous block was of the same difficulty. What I thought of was to nest different timelines. I'll describe one difficulty but i have done the same with all the others. I created a variable that contains the first 5 elements of the array containing all of the easiest questions and it has a conditional_function that returns true / false depending on a counter i declared called recorrido_mf. Recorrido_mf has a ++ at the end of each element of the array containing all of the questions trials. The problem I've encountered is that whenever i start running the trial, the first time the variable containing the two variables of the two halves of the array of a certain difficulty is pushed, both halves are displayed instead of one. As if there was no conditional function on the two variables contained in the third variable. To be clear, variable A has a conditional function to be displayed depending on the level of difficulty which works fine. Variable A contains in its timeline B and C. Variables B and C contain the first and second half of the array which has all the trials of questions respectively. The problem is I think with the condition in variables B and C. However at first, when running the experiment,the first time it gets to variable A, it displays both B and C as if the condition for both were met (which are meant to be exclusive).

I'll share the code i have so far. Sorry for being so wordy. If you need me to describe what I'm doing, please tell me. btw im using cognition.run and jspsych 7.3

var jsPsych = initJsPsych({
    on_finish: function () {
        jsPsych.data.displayData();
    }
});

////////////////////////////
var timeline = [];
var respuestasCorrectas = 0;
var nivelDificultad = 3;
var recorrido_mf = 0;
var recorrido_f = 0;
var recorrido_m = 0;
var recorrido_d = 0;
var contador = 0; //contador del LoopFunction de la variable Bloques
/////////////////////////////

function sumMax5(a) {
    let result = a;
    result++;
    if (result > 5) {
        result = 5;
    }
    return result;
}

function diffMin1(a) {
    let result = a;
    result--;
    if (result < 1) {
        result = 1;
    }
    return result;
}

////////////Arreglo Preguntas Muy Fáciles
var EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles = [];
preguntasmuyfaciles.forEach(function (pregunta) {
    var PreguntasDeEnsayo = {
        type: jsPsychHtmlButtonResponse,
        stimulus: pregunta.stimulus,
        choices: pregunta.choices,
        prompt: '',
        trial_duration: 30000,
        required: true,
        button_html: '%choice%',
        data: {
            stimulus: pregunta.stimulus,
            choices: pregunta.choices,
            correct: pregunta.correct
        },
        on_finish: function (data) {
            data: { response: pregunta.response };
            if (data.response == pregunta.correct) {
                respuestasCorrectas++;
                data: { correctas: respuestasCorrectas };
            }
            return recorrido_mf++;
        },
    };
    EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles.push(PreguntasDeEnsayo);
});
///////////Arreglo Preguntas Fáciles
var EnsayosPreguntasFaciles = [];
preguntasfaciles.forEach(function (pregunta) {
    var PreguntasDeEnsayo = {
        type: jsPsychHtmlButtonResponse,
        stimulus: pregunta.stimulus,
        choices: pregunta.choices,
        prompt: '',
        trial_duration: 30000,
        required: true,
        button_html: '%choice%',
        data: {
            stimulus: pregunta.stimulus,
            choices: pregunta.choices,
            correct: pregunta.correct
        },
        on_finish: function (data) {
            data: { response: pregunta.response };
            if (data.response == pregunta.correct) {
                respuestasCorrectas++;
                data: { correctas: respuestasCorrectas };
            }
            return recorrido_f++;
        },
    };
    EnsayosPreguntasFaciles.push(PreguntasDeEnsayo);
});

/////////Arreglo Preguntas Media
var EnsayosPreguntasMedio = [];
preguntasmedio.forEach(function (pregunta) {
    var PreguntasDeEnsayo = {
        type: jsPsychHtmlButtonResponse,
        stimulus: pregunta.stimulus,
        choices: pregunta.choices,
        prompt: '',
        trial_duration: 30000,
        required: true,
        button_html: '%choice%',
        data: {
            stimulus: pregunta.stimulus,
            choices: pregunta.choices,
            correct: pregunta.correct
        },
        on_finish: function (data) {
            data: { response: pregunta.response };
            if (data.response == pregunta.correct) {
                respuestasCorrectas++;
                data: { correctas: respuestasCorrectas };
            }
            return recorrido_m++;
        },
    };
    EnsayosPreguntasMedio.push(PreguntasDeEnsayo);
});

////////Arreglo Preguntas Difíciles
var EnsayosPreguntasDificiles = [];
preguntasdificiles.forEach(function (pregunta) {
    var PreguntasDeEnsayo = {
        type: jsPsychHtmlButtonResponse,
        stimulus: pregunta.stimulus,
        choices: pregunta.choices,
        prompt: '',
        trial_duration: 30000,
        required: true,
        button_html: '%choice%',
        data: {
            stimulus: pregunta.stimulus,
            choices: pregunta.choices,
            correct: pregunta.correct
        },
        on_finish: function (data) {
            data: { response: pregunta.response };
            if (data.response == pregunta.correct) {
                respuestasCorrectas++;
                data: { correctas: respuestasCorrectas };
            }
            return recorrido_d++;
        },
    };
    EnsayosPreguntasDificiles.push(PreguntasDeEnsayo);
});

////////Escala Likert Afecto
var afecto = {
    type: jsPsychSurveyMultiChoice,
    questions: [{
        prompt: "Mi desempeño hasta ahora me hace sentir...",
        name: 'AfectoDesempeño',
        options: ['Bastante negativo', 'Negativamente', 'Ligeramente negativo', 'Ligeramente positivo', 'Positivo', 'Bastante positivo'],
        required: true,
        horizontal: true
    }]
};

//////////Mensaje de retroalimentación
var retroalimentacion = {
    type: jsPsychHtmlKeyboardResponse,
    stimulus: function () {
        var feedback = "";
        if (respuestasCorrectas === 5) {
            feedback = "Muy bien";
        } else if (respuestasCorrectas === 4 || respuestasCorrectas === 3) {
            feedback = "Bien";
        } else if (respuestasCorrectas <= 2) {
            feedback = "Puede mejorar";
        }
        return <div style="font-size: 20px;"><p>${feedback}</p><p>Respuestas correctas: ${respuestasCorrectas} de ${10 - 5}.</p></div>;
    },
    choices: "NO_KEYS",
    trial_duration: 3000, // Ajusta esta duración según lo necesario
    on_finish: function () {
        respuestasCorrectas = 0;
        return respuestasCorrectas;
    }
};

//////////////Selección de dificultad
var seleccionDificultad = {
    type: jsPsychHtmlButtonResponse,
    stimulus: "¿Deseas modificar la dificultad?",
    choices: ["Más fácil", "Igual", "Más difícil"],
    prompt: '',
    required: true,
    button_html: '%choice%',
    on_finish: function (data) {
        if (data.response == 0) {
            nivelDificultad = diffMin1(nivelDificultad);
        }
        else if (data.response == 2) {
            nivelDificultad = sumMax5(nivelDificultad);
        }
        data.nivelDificultad = nivelDificultad;
        return { data, nivelDificultad };
    }
};

var SegundaMitadBloque = {
    timeline: [afecto, retroalimentacion, seleccionDificultad]
};

var TimelinePreguntasMuyFaciles1 = {
    timeline: [EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles[0], EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles[1], EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles[2], EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles[3], EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles[4]],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (recorrido_mf === 0) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    },
/ on_finish: function () {
    recorrido_mf++;
    return recorrido_mf;
} /
};

var TimelinePreguntasMuyFaciles2 = {
    timeline: [EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles[5], EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles[6], EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles[7], EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles[8], EnsayosPreguntasMuyFaciles[9]],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (recorrido_mf >= 4) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    },
/ on_finish: function () {
    recorrido_mf++;
    return recorrido_mf;
} /
};

var TimelinePreguntasMuyFaciles = {
    timeline: [TimelinePreguntasMuyFaciles1, TimelinePreguntasMuyFaciles2],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (nivelDificultad == 1) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    },
};

var TimelinePreguntasFaciles1 = {
    timeline: [EnsayosPreguntasFaciles[0], EnsayosPreguntasFaciles[1], EnsayosPreguntasFaciles[2], EnsayosPreguntasFaciles[3], EnsayosPreguntasFaciles[4]],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (recorrido_f === 0) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    },
/ on_finish: function () {
    recorrido_f++;
    return recorrido_f;
} /
};

var TimelinePreguntasFaciles2 = {
    timeline: [EnsayosPreguntasFaciles[5], EnsayosPreguntasFaciles[6], EnsayosPreguntasFaciles[7], EnsayosPreguntasFaciles[8], EnsayosPreguntasFaciles[9]],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (recorrido_f >= 4) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    },
/ on_finish: function () {
    recorrido_f++;
    return recorrido_f;
} /
};

var TimelinePreguntasFaciles = {
    timeline: [TimelinePreguntasFaciles1, TimelinePreguntasFaciles2],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (nivelDificultad == 2) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    }
};

var TimelinePreguntasMedio1 = {
    timeline: [EnsayosPreguntasMedio[0], EnsayosPreguntasMedio[1], EnsayosPreguntasMedio[2], EnsayosPreguntasMedio[3], EnsayosPreguntasMedio[4]],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (recorrido_m === 0) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    },
/ on_finish: function () {
    recorrido_m++;
    return recorrido_m;
} /
};

var TimelinePreguntasMedio2 = {
    timeline: [EnsayosPreguntasMedio[5], EnsayosPreguntasMedio[6], EnsayosPreguntasMedio[7], EnsayosPreguntasMedio[8], EnsayosPreguntasMedio[9]],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (recorrido_m >= 4) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    },
/ on_finish: function () {
    recorrido_m++;
    return recorrido_m;
} /
};

var TimelinePreguntasMedio = {
    timeline: [TimelinePreguntasMedio1, TimelinePreguntasMedio2],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (nivelDificultad == 3) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    }
};

var TimelinePreguntasDificiles1 = {
    timeline: [EnsayosPreguntasDificiles[0], EnsayosPreguntasDificiles[1], EnsayosPreguntasDificiles[2], EnsayosPreguntasDificiles[3], EnsayosPreguntasDificiles[4]],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (recorrido_d === 0) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    },
/ on_finish: function () {
    recorrido_d++;
    return recorrido_d;
} /
};

var TimelinePreguntasDificiles2 = {
    timeline: [EnsayosPreguntasDificiles[5], EnsayosPreguntasDificiles[6], EnsayosPreguntasDificiles[7], EnsayosPreguntasDificiles[8], EnsayosPreguntasDificiles[9]],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (recorrido_d >= 4) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    },
/ on_finish: function () {
    recorrido_d++;
    return recorrido_d;
} /
};

var TimelinePreguntasDificiles = {
    timeline: [TimelinePreguntasDificiles1, TimelinePreguntasDificiles2],
    conditional_function: function () {
        if (nivelDificultad > 3) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    }
};

var Bloques = {
    timeline: [TimelinePreguntasMuyFaciles, TimelinePreguntasFaciles, TimelinePreguntasMedio, TimelinePreguntasDificiles, SegundaMitadBloque],
    loop_function: function () {
        contador++;
        if (contador < 6) {
            return true;
        }
        else {
            return false;
        }
    }
};

timeline.push(Bloques);

jsPsych.run(timeline);

[becky-gilbert]

Hi @CayoPigeon! Thanks for including your code. I hope you don't mind but I edited your post to format your code block, as it was hard to read (see this discussion post: #1113).

I'm having trouble understanding what you're trying to do. I think it would help if you explained this as a simplified example with a few steps describing how the procedure should work, something like this:

1. Present a block of questions, which come from half of a set of 10 questions.
2. Ask the participant whether they want the same difficulty, easier, or harder.
3. Depending on their response, present another block of questions. If the participant says "same", then present the remaining questions from the same set of 10. (Otherwise present a random set of 5 questions from another set?).

Is that right?

[CayoPigeon]

Hi @becky-gilbert :) !
Yes! That's exactly what i intend to do. In theory the first thing the participant sees (after the demographic questions which i haven't included to try to simplify the code) is the set of 5 questions. Everyone starts at the medium difficulty. Form there, they can choose what difficulty they wish for the following set of 5 questions. For example, for the medium difficulty, they should see the first five questions of the medium difficulty, and if they choose to stay on the same level, they should see the following five questions. However, what's happening right now is that the code displays the whole timeline of questions instead of the first five at the beginning. Then if i choose the same difficulty, it does what i intend to do which is only showing the next 5 questions. At first, it shows the 10 questions and then if i choose "same" is shows the second half only. I would expect the code to show the first half first and then the second one after, instead of displaying all the 10 questions first and then only 5.

What i've done so far is to divide the first five set of questions. I did this by declaring a variable and adding the first five questions to its timeline and then added a conditional function that returns true is the variable "recorrido" is smaller than 5. The variable recorrido is a counter that i added at the end of each trial of questions. You can find it in the on_finish function of the variable where the trials of questions are. Then, I declared a second variable with the next five set of questions in its timeline with a conditional function that returns true if the variable recorrido es bigger than 4. Both these variables are then nested into another variable called timelinepreguntasmedio. My idea was that the timelinepreguntasmedio variable should display only one of the two other variables it contains depending on the value of "recorrido". They are meant to be exclusive of one another, however thats not happening and i can't see why.