Let's set up your VAAST experiment!

What you need

Applications and Websites

You will need a development environment, like Visual Studio Code (which we will use in this set-up). If you don't have one yet, you can download one or use the web version if they have one.

For this set up, we chose to use GitHub Pages, OSF (Open Science Framework) and DataPipe. We'll use GitHub Pages to host the experiment online. For that we'll need a GitHub account. We'll use OSF to store the resulting data, you'll need an account there as well. We'll use DataPipe to be the bridge between the two previous tools.
If you use other means, feel free to make the necessary adjustments. Otherwise, log onto these websites or create an account on each using the Sign Up button:

• GitHub
• OSF
• DataPipe

Set up Visual Studio Code

Download the following code zip file. Unzip it. Open VSCode and open the folder (from the Start page or via File>Open Folder).

You should see two folders, named incidental and explicit. Each folder contains all the needed files for the specific experiment. Go to the home page to learn about the differences between the two versions.
Now, go to the left-hand side of your VSCode, to the Source Control logo (). There, you will set up your distant GitHub repository. You'll be asked to connect to your GitHub account. You should then choose a public repository. Visit this VSCode page if you have any trouble at this time.

Make all the necessary changes

Once you have linked your local version of the folder to the distant one, you can start making the changes you want. Know that to save these changes to the distant repository (online on GitHub), you'll need to do git add . then git push and add a message, click the tick in the upper right corner to validate. This will update your distant repository with the local changes.

Whether you chose the incidental or the explicit version, there are a number of changes you could make. Here's a (non-exhaustive) list of things you might want to change, according to the specific experiment you want to run:

• The stimuli (words or images)
• The background images (see this paragraph in the home page, for more information on the different backgrounds available)
• The amount of training and testing trials (i.e., how many times the participants see a stimulus that they have to approach/avoid)
• The instructions
• The end:
  • Adding demographic questions
  • The end page
• Etc.

If you want to try the experiment at any time, you can use the Live Server VSCode extension that you can download directly from the application.

Now that you've made all the changes you want, it's time to dive into how to save your data. As explained above, we'll use OSF (Open Science Framework) to hold the data.

Data and Availability online

OSF, DataPipe and GitHub Pages

DataPipe is an API (Application Programming Interface) created by the developpers of JsPsych for sending data from behavioural experiments to the Open Science Framework, for free. Check out more information on getting started with DataPipe.

Setting up DataPipe and OSF

Here, find a recap of the different tasks you'll need to engage in, in order.

• Create an OSF page for your project, copy the numbers at the end of the URL.
• Create an authorization token on OSF (write_only authorization) and make sure to save this token.
  You only need to do this once, not for every experiment.
• Create the study in DataPipe. Use the OSF URL code previously copied.
  For the component to create in OSF, enter 'data'.
  This automatically creates a component on the OSF page.
• Paste the different elements given by DataPipe in your Javascript code and in the index file:
• Uncomment this line in the index.html file:
  

  <script src="https://unpkg.com/@jspsych-contrib/plugin-pipe"></script>

• Add these lines to the experiment.js file:
  

  const subject_id = jsPsych.randomization.randomID(10);

  const filename = `${subject_id}.csv`;

  const save_data = {
    type: jsPsychPipe,
    action: "save",
    experiment_id: "your-experiment-id",
    filename: filename,
    data_string: ()=>jsPsych.data.get().csv()
  };

  Don't forget to replace "your-experiment-id" by the real code between quotation marks
• Try your experiment with the Live Server extension to test if the data is saved on OSF.
• Use the GitHub Pages URL to share your experiment (on whichever platform you use).

Using GitHub Pages to access the experiment online

Visit the remote (on GitHub) version of your experiment. Click on Settings, below 'Code and automation', find Pages. Choose 'deploy from a branch' and the branch your experiment is on (usually main).

Wait a few minutes and reload the current page you're on. At the top of your screen you should see 'Your site is live at https://your-username.github.io/repo-name/', click on the Visit site button to see your published site.

You can now use this URL to share your experiment.

Please note, it might take up to 10 minutes for any changes you make to the files to be visible.