Intermixing stimuli from two loops randomly in OpenSesame
I’m developing a slightly tricky design in OpenSesame (a Python-based experiment builder). My stimuli comprise two kinds of sentences that contain different elements, and different numbers of elements. These sentences must be presented word by word. Furthermore, I need to attach triggers to some words in the first kind of sentences but not in the second kind. Last, these kinds of sentences must be intermixed within a block (or a sequence) of trials, because the first kind are targets and the second kind are fillers.
I need to present stimuli randomly from either of two loops within a sequence. Currently, when I try this arrangement using the interface, the resulting script ends up with run loop1 followed by run loop2, but I can’t find a way to ensure that the overarching sequence pulls randomly from either loop over successive trials. In other words, my goal is to intermix the stimuli from both loops.
I have searched for clues in the OpenSesame tutorials, in the OpenSesame forum, and elsewhere online, but to no avail.
Solution
Finally, I solved this by first distributing all the words in each sentence across different columns in the stimulus file, yielding ‘word1’, ‘word2’, etc. Next, in OpenSesame, I created a sketchpad for each word. Last, to prevent showing any words that were blank, I entered conditions such as [word7] != NA in the Run if field of the sequence.