A random-object-kinematogram plugin for web-based research: implementing oriented objects enables varying coherence levels and stimulus congruency levels

Abstract

One of the recent major advances in cognitive psychology research has been the option of web-based in addition to lab-based experimental research. This option fosters experimental research by increasing the pace and size of collecting data sets. Importantly, web-based research profits heavily from integrating tasks that are frequently applied in cognitive psychology into open access software. For instance, an open access random-dot kinematogram (RDK) plugin has recently been integrated into the jsPsych software for web-based research. This plugin allows researchers to implement experimental tasks with varying coherence levels (with that varying task difficulty) of moving dots or varying signal to noise ratios of colored dots. Here, we introduce the random-object kinematogram (ROK) plugin for the jsPsych software which, among other new features, enables researchers to include oriented objects (e.g., triangles or arrows) instead of dots as stimuli. This permits experiments with feature congruency (e.g., upwards-moving triangles pointing upwards) or incongruency (e.g., upwards-moving triangles pointing downwards), allowing to induce gradual degrees of stimulus interference, in addition to gradual degrees of task difficulty. We elaborate on possible set-ups with this plugin in two experiments examining participants’ RTs and error rates on different combinations of coherence and congruency levels. Results showed increased RTs and error rates on trials with lower coherence percentages, and on trials with lower congruency levels. We discuss other new features of the ROK plugin and conclude that the possibility of gradually varying the coherence level and congruency level independently from each other offers novel possibilities when conducting web-based experiments.