# SuperLab Tutorial

Thank you for using SuperLab.

In this tutorial, we will build a word/nonword experiment that will present instructions to the participant followed by six trials. Each trial will consist of a cue and stimulus.

This experiment is designed to illustrate a few techniques and features of SuperLab:

- Creating blocks, trials, and events, and linking them together

- Taking advantage of stimulus lists

- Defining the responses

- Randomizing trials

When developing your own experiments, careful planning and taking advantage of the stimulus lists and code values features can save you a lot of development time as well as make it easier to see the structure of your experiment and maintain it.

Going through this tutorial takes less than an hour. What you need to type is shown in this color.

### Step 1: Run SuperLab

On Mac OS X:

Click on the SuperLab icon in the dock.

On Windows XP:

Click on the Start button in the bottom left corner of your monitor, then click on All Programs, then SuperLab 4.5, then SuperLab 4.5 again. The program will run and open a window like the one shown below.

### Step 2: Creating a Block and a Trial

This is the main experiment window where all trials are created:

The smallest unit of an experiment is the event, usually a stimulus or an event marker. A trial is a set of events, and a block is a set of trials. To run an experiment, you must have at least one block, one trial, and one event that are linked together.

Note the orange rectangle drawn around the list of blocks. To familiarize yourself with the SuperLab workspace, try the following steps:

- Click on the Edit menu. A menu will appear.

- Choose the menu item One New Block. This will cause a dialog (screen) to appear. It’s the Block Editor.

- Type “Instructions”.

- Click on the OK button. The Block Editor will go away and “Instructions” will appear in the list of blocks.

Now we will create the first trial:

- In the main experiment window, click on the list of trials. The orange selection rectangle will move from the list of blocks to the list of trials.

- Click on the Edit menu again.

- Note how some menu items have changed. The item that used to read One New Block is now One New Trial. This is because the Edit menu is dynamic, meaning that its items change depending on your actions.

- Release the mouse button to make the Edit menu go away. We still want to create a trial but we will do so using the toolbar.

- In the toolbar, click on the New Trial icon shown below. The Trial Editor will appear.
  Notice how SuperLab displays yellow "tooltips" as you move the mouse cursor over the icons. The tooltips for the New Trial, Edit Trial, and Delete Trial icons are also dynamic and will change depending on where the orange selection rectangle is.

- Type “Instructions”.

- Click on the OK button. The Trial Editor will go away and “Instructions” will appear in the list of trials.

You can also press the Tab key to move the orange selection rectangle.

### Step 3: Saving the Experiment

We may not have created much of an experiment yet but it’s a good idea to save and save often:

- Click on the Save Experiment icon in the toolbar. You can also click on the File menu and select Save.

- SuperLab will ask you to provide a name for your experiment. The default file name extension is “SL4”. For example, if you type tutorial, SuperLab will save a file as tutorial.sl4.

### Step 4: Creating an Event

Back to the experiment, you are now ready to create your first event. We want to complete the instructions part of the experiment.

- In the main experiment window, click on the list of events. The selection rectangle will move from the list of trials to the list of events.

- In the toolbar, click on the New Event icon. The Event Editor will appear.

As mentioned earlier, an event is the smallest unit of an experiment. It is where you tell SuperLab what to present to the participant, what is a correct response, and how to provide feedback based on the participant’s response.

- For the event name, type “Instructions”.

- Click on the Stimulus tab to select it if it’s not selected already.

- Click on the Event Type popup menu and select Text.

- In the large text editing field, type:
  You are about to be presented with some words.
  Press the letter Y if you recognize the word or
  the letter N if you do not.
  Press any key to start the experiment.

Click on the OK button. The Event Editor will go away and “Instructions” will also appear in the list of events.

### Step 5: Linking

In SuperLab, various elements of an experiment are created separately and then "linked" together. To link the block, trial, and event that you just created, follow these steps:

- Click (once only) on the block "Instructions" to select it.

- To tell SuperLab that the trial "Instructions" is part of the selected block, click on the blue checkbox that's on left of the trial name

The block and trial are now linked. Let's do the same for the trial and event:

- Click on the trial "Instructions" to select it (the trial name itself and not its checkbox).

- Click on the blue checkbox that's on left of the event name.

Click on the Save Experiment icon.

### Step 6: Selecting an Input Device

Most experiments require some sort of response from the participant. Prior to running an experiment, we need to select the device that participants will use to respond:

- Click on the Experiment menu and select Participant Input. A dialog opens.

- We will use the keyboard for this experiment. SuperLab offers two keyboard options. The first is used when the response is expected to be a single key press or key release., e.g. Y or N. The second is used when the response is expected to be words or sentences, e.g. Apple.

- Click on the checkbox to the left of "Keyboard-Single Keys".

- Click on the Done button.

### Step 7: Running the Experiment

You now have enough to run an experiment. Click on the Run Experiment icon shown on the right. SuperLab will present the Run dialog:

Since we're still early in the development stage, there is no need to enter the participant's name or collect data:

- Click on the Save collected data checkbox to turn it off

- Click on the Run button

SuperLab will open a window that covers the entire screen, display the instructions that you typed in Step 4 earlier, and wait for you to press any key on the keyboard. You can also press the Esc key to cancel an experiment in progress.

### Step 8: Defining the Participant Responses

As mentioned in the instructions, the participant is expected to respond by pressing the keys Y and N. We need to create two corresponding responses. Note that SuperLab will always record what the user presses regardless of whether you define responses or not, but by doing so you can later tell the Event Editor which is the correct response for a particular stimulus. This has the following benefits:

- You can chose to end an event only after a correct response instead of any response

- You can provide feedback to the participant based on whether his or her response is correct or not

- The responses in the collected data file will automatically be coded for correctness

To create the responses:

- Click on the Experiment menu and select Participant Input. A dialog opens. The "Keyboard-Single Keys" input device is already enabled (checked) and selected.

- Click on the Responses tab if it's not selected already.

- Click on the New... button to create a response. Another smaller dialog opens.

- For the response name, type "Y key (is word)". It is a good idea to type a descriptive name of the key instead of simply "Y".

- Type "y" for the actual key.

- Click on OK to close the response editor.

We repeat the steps above for the N key:

- Click on the New... button to create a response. The response editor opens.

- For the response name, type "N key (is not word)".

- Type "n" for the actual key.

- Click on OK to close the response editor.

- Click on Done to close the Participant Input dialog.

Remember to save; click on the Save Experiment icon.

### Step 9: Adding a Cue

We are now ready to build the core of the experiment. Recall that we want to present six trials, each consisting of a cue and a stimulus. Let's start with the cue:

- Press Tab until the orange selection rectangle surrounds the list of events.

- Make sure that the existing event called "Instructions" is not selected. You can do this by clicking anywhere on the white space under the event name, or by choosing Select and then None from the Edit menu.

- When running an experiment, SuperLab presents events in the order in which they appear in the main experiment window.

- Click on the New Event icon on the toolbar (shown on the right). The Event Editor appears.

- For the event name, type “Cue”.

- Click on the Stimulus tab if it's not selected already.

- The Event Type should still be set to Text.

- In the large text editing field, type "+".

A cue is typically presented for a brief moment to direct the participant's attention to a particular location on the screen:

- Click on the Input tab to select it.

- Click on the ...or a time limit, whichever happens first checkbox to turn it on.

- In the edit field below the checkbox, type 500 to have the cue displayed for half a second.

- Click on the After any response from the participant checkbox to turn it off.

- A participant response during a cue is typically ignored. To reduce the clutter in the collected data file, click on the Record and save response checkbox to turn it off.

We're done with the cue. Click on OK to close the Event Editor.

### Step 10: Using Stimulus Lists

The next step is to create the events that present the stimuli. This is similar to creating the instruction and cue events except that we do it six times, one for each stimulus. Here, we introduce the all important stimulus lists feature which will allow us to create a single event instead of six:

- Click on the Experiment menu and select Stimulus Lists. A dialog opens.

- Click on the New icon. A second dialog, the Stimulus List Editor, opens.

- You can create lists of files or lists of single line sentences. Click on the List Type popup menu in the upper right corner of the dialog and change File to Text.

- For the list name, type "My Word-NonWord list".

- In the large edit field, enter three words and three nonwords by typing:
  apple
  plane
  train
  neibs
  quighs
  chortz

- Click on OK to close the Stimulus List Editor.

- Click on Done to close the Stimulus Lists dialog.

The list is ready. Before we proceed to using it, it's worth taking a minute to emphasize the advantages of using stimulus lists:

- You can create a single event. This becomes more and more important as the experiment gets larger.

- When you have a few events that use stimulus lists, it is easier to see the structure of the experiment in the main window.

- It is easier to maintain the experiment.

- You can increase the size of the experiment by simply modifying the list and without touching the structure of the experiment. Trying to do so without using stimulus lists is more error prone and costly.

Click on the Save Experiment icon.

### Step 11: Creating the Stimuli

You now have everything needed to create the stimuli using a single event:

- Press Tab until the orange selection rectangle surrounds the list of events.

- Make sure that none of the existing events are selected. You can do this by clicking anywhere on the white space under the events.

- Click on the New Event icon on the toolbar. The Event Editor appears.

- For the event name, type “Stimulus”.

- Click on the Stimulus tab if it's not selected already.

- The Event Type should still be set to Text.

- Click on the Use Text option and select Text Chosen From the List:. The name of the list that you created in the previous step appears.

That's it. You have just taken care of presenting your stimuli with a couple of mouse clicks. We still need to tell SuperLab what is the correct response for a given list item.

- With the Event Editor still open, click on the Correct Response tab. The items in your stimulus list are visible in this tab.

- Select the first three words: apple, train, and plane.
  In Windows, you can select all three simultaneously by hold down the Shift key while you click with the mouse.
  On the Mac, you can select all three simultaneously by hold down the Command () key while you click with the mouse.

- Click on the "...the correct response is" popup menu (in the upper right part of the dialog) and select the One or more of the following option.

- Click on the checkbox to the left of "Y key (is word)" to turn it on.

We're done with the list of words. For nonwords:

- Select the three nonwords: neibs, quighs, and chortz.

- Click on the "...the correct response is" popup menu and select the One or more of the following option.

- Click on the checkbox to the left of "N key (is not word)" to turn it on.

We would like the event to stay on the screen until the participant presses the correct key:

- Click on the Input tab.

- Click on the After a correct response from the participant checkbox to turn it on.

Last but not least (as far as this event is concerned), we need to reset the reaction time timer. This is a very important detail: not doing so means that the reaction times that SuperLab collects in the data file will be measured relative to the onset of the cue instead of the onset of the stimulus itself:

- Still in the Input tab, click on the Reset RT timer checkbox to turn it on.

- Click on OK to close the Event Editor.

Back in the main window, notice that the Stimulus event has a stacked checkbox (
) instead of standard checkbox. This is a visual indication that the event uses a stimulus list.

Remember to save; click on the Save Experiment icon.

### Step 12: Creating the Trials

The "hard" part is done. We still need to create one trial and one block, and link them together. We start with the trial:

- Press Tab until the orange selection rectangle surrounds the list of trials.

- Click on the New Trial icon in the toolbar. The Trial Editor appears.

- Type “Word-Nonword Trial”.

- Click on the OK button. The Trial Editor will go away and “Word-Nonword Trial” will appear in the list of trials. Click on it to select it.

- Click on the checkboxes to the left of the events "Cue" and "Stimulus". This tells SuperLab that trial "Word-Nonword Trial" consists of event "Cue" followed 500 milliseconds later by the stimulus.

### Step 13: Creating a New Block

It is tempting to simply link the "Word-Nonword Trial" to the existing "Instructions" block. But this would be a bad practice and, in the case of this particular experiment, not even an option. The reason is because we want to randomize the trials. If everything was part of a single block, the instructions would get randomized as well and presented at the beginning only by chance.

- Press Tab until the orange selection rectangle surrounds the list of blocks.

- Click on the New Block icon in the toolbar. The Block Editor appears.

- Type “Block 1”.

- Click on the Randomize tab.

- Click on the Randomize the trials in this block checkbox to turn it on.

- Click on the OK button. The Block Editor will go away and “Block 1” will appear in the list of blocks. Click on it to select it.

- Click on the checkbox to the left of the trial "Word-Nonword Trial".

Click on the Save Experiment icon.

Congratulations! You have learned several concepts of SuperLab such as linking and using stimulus lists, and now have a ready-to-go experiment. Click on the Run Experiment icon on the toolbar to run it.