You can download the latest version of my Authorware Guide for Researchers here.
Authorware Programming Guide for Reseachers- 2nd Edition
Below are some pieces of programming done in Authorware. Most of them are useful for people creating scientific experiments in Authorware which will be run in a lab setting. Read through the explanations of each file to see what it does and if it might help you. Feel free to use these and adapt them in any way you like. The files are devided into measures, manipulations and other useful things. All are programmed in Authorware 7. See also the Code Only Section
If you like this page, please take some time to contribute: if this site saves you 3 hours of programming, it would be great if you would spend 15 minutes sending me pieces of experiments you've programmed that are missing from this site.
MEASURES
*NEW*
Instructional Manipulation Check
The Instructional Manipulation Check was programmed by Jacob H. Wiebenga from the University of Groningen.
Oppenheimer, Daniel, Tom Meyvis, and Nicolas Davidenko (2009), "Instructional Manipulation Checks: Detecting Satisficing to Increase Statistical Power," Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45, 867-872.
Lets people choose 3 out of 14 traits by checking checkboxes. Continue button is active if 3 checkboxes are clicked. If more than 3 checkboxes are clicked, the first checkbox is unchecked automatically. Stores of all 14 checkboxes whether it was checked or not when exiting the insteraction. This was more or less the first thing I needed to make in Authorware when I started using the program. It was such a frustrating experience, it took me 10 years to sit down and build a decent version of such an interaction.
5 text entries on one screen. Participants can indicate their preferred order for 5 items by typing in 1 to 5. Warnings are shown when not allowed values are typed in, and typing in the same value in 2 text entries is controlled for. Continue button only appears when filled out correctly.
Programmed by Frank Verberne at Eindhoven University of Technology.
Simple 7 point version of pictorial IoS scale (Aron and collegues, 1992) including instructions.
Aron, A., Aron, E. N., & Smollan, D. (1992). Inclusion of other in the self scale and the structure of interpersonal closeness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 596–612.
Continuous version of the Inclusion of Self in Other Scale above, useful for repeated measures. Participants can click and drag one circle over the other, to make them overlap. Scored from 1 to 100.
SocialValueOrientationRingMeasure9items.a7p
Social Value Orientation, as measures by 9 items. Also known as the ring measure. See these references:
Van Lange, P. A. M. (1999). The pursuit of joint outcomes and equality in outcomes: an integrative model of sociale value Psychology, 77, 337-349
The OSPAN task measures the amount of activation available on a "moment-to-moment basis".
Turner, M. L. & Engle, R. W. (1989). Is working memory capacity task dependent? Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 127-154.
This is a version of the Framed Line Task by Kitayama.
Kitayama, S., Duffy, S., Kawamura, T., & Larsen, J. T. (2003). A cultural look at New Look: Perceiving an object and its context in two cultures. Psychological Science, 14, 201-206.
Category Width Task (based on Rosch, 1978). In this version, 3 sets of 9 objects (in the categories transport, furniture and vegtables, all in dutch) are presented. Participants have to report how much the objects belongs in the category.
Weswe task where participants are asked to guess the correct translation of each of the 20 pronouns from a list of pronouns. The pronoun translation task can tap activation of the self concept, with self-focused participants listing relatively more first-person pronouns (I, mine, me).
The updated version was created by Kobe Millet and allows people to change their words, better resembling a paper and pencil version.
Stapel, D, & Blanton, H. (2004). From seeing to being: Subliminal social comparisons affect implicit and explicit self-evaluations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 468-481.
Quirin, M., Kazén, M., & Kuhl, J. (2009). When nonsense sounds happy or helpless: The implicit positive and negative affect test (IPANAT). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 500 - 516.
The IPANAT was programmed by Evert-Jan van Doorn from the University of Amsterdam.
A horizontal line which participants can click on, scored as a continuous measure from 1 to 100.
Similar to the horizontal clickable line above, only now it's a slider participants can slide to the left or right. Also continously measures from 1 to 100.
Nice version of the age demographic question. Participants type in their age and press continue.
Nice version of gender demographic questions, participants click either a male of female picture.
IndicateExpectedPerformenceBars.a7p
Two bars indicate performence by two groups: participants can draw a third bar of the expected own performence.
QUESTIONNAIRES in AUTHORWARE
QuestionnaireFramework7ItemLikert.a7p
All of the questionnaires below, require this 7 item framework. You replace the 'Set Questions' icon in this framework with the ones you can download from the specific questionnaires below. The questionnaire will automatically loop the correct number of times to display all questions, and store all answers in the variable AnswersSave. Please take care to change the scale ends as necessary.Narcisme37items.a7p
Cacioppo, J. T., Petty, R. E., and Kao, C. F. (1984). The efficient assessment of need for cognition. Journal of Personality Assessment, 48, 306-307.
NeedForCompetiteveness20Items.a7p
Watson, D., & Clark, L. A. (1994). The PANAS-X: Manual for the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule-Expanded Form. Unpublished manuscript [updated 8/99], University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA.
RosenbergSelfEsteem10Items.a7p
Rosenberg, M. (1989). Society and the Adolescent Self-Image. Revised edition. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
Heatherton, T.F. & Polivy, J. (1991). Development and validation of a scale for measuring state self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 895-910.
SelfMonitoringScale25Items.a7p
CheeckBussSociabilityScale.a7p
Cheek, J.M., & Buss, A.H. (1981). Shyness and sociability. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41, 330-339.
Relational-InterdependentSelf-ConstrualScale.a7p
Cross, S. E., Bacon, P., & Morris, M. (2000). The relational- interdependent self-construal and relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 791-808.
MANIPULATIONS
A version of Cyberball by Kip Williams using the original .gif images, but reprogrammed in Authorware.
Eisenberg, N. I., Lieberman, M. D., & Williams, K. D. (2003). Does rejection hurt? An fMRI study of social exclusion. Science, 302, 290-292.
This is a high or low status manipulation created by Jaap Ouwerkerk where participants perform a spatial reaction task and recieve feedback their score is in the top or lowest 10%.
Ouwerkerk, J. W., de Gilder, D., & de Vries, N. K. (2000). When the going gets tough, the tough get going: Social identification and individual effort in intergroup competition. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1550-1559.
Version of the N-Back task programmed in Authorware. Either 2 back or 1 back versions.
Gevins AS, Cutillo BC (1993): Neuroelectric evidence for distributed processing in human working memory. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 87:128-143.
OTHER
Here's a way how to put multiple text entries one one page. I am often asked if it's possible to do this. This version for 3 entries show how to do this, and you can extend it to any number of text entries.
Assign participants to condition
Assign pp to a condition based on their participantnumber using these simple lines of programming. Set totalconditions to the right number of conditions you have.
TotalConditions := 2
Condition := ParticipantNumber
repeat while Condition > TotalConditions
Condition:= Condition - TotalConditions
end repeat
RandomOrderQuestionaire7pointLikert.a7p
This is an example of a randomized questionaire. You can easily adapt this to any number of questions, and the answers will be stored in the same order as you ordered the questions. The questions will be presented completely randomized.
A screen with folders containing information for participants to read. 2 versions, either they select 4 folders to read, or they click on a folder and immediatly see the contents. To track in which information participants are interested.
Simple experimenter screen with 2 text entries on 1 page, one for the participant number, the second for the condition.
This is a simple timer which shows a digital clock counting down from any number you pre-program.
A simple version of the card game blackjack programmed in Authorware.
This is a calculation icon that creates a batch file, and jumps to this batch file to start your medialab experiment. Use it to start your medialab experiment from Authorware. Why you would want to use Medialab is you could use Authorware? Don't ask me :)
Here's a new cool thing I programmed in authorware, with a little help from AutoHotKey. The .exe file is activated through a jumpoutreturn command, and it will pick the color under the mouse cursor when the SPACE bar is pressed, and send the Hex value of that color to the clipboard. Then, the authorware program takes the variable FROM THE CLIPBOARD and saves it. Pretty cool, didn't even know authorware could do this, you learn something new every day...
http://www.mods.com.au/budapi/default.htm:
Buddy API is an Xtra for use with Adobe Director and Authorware which allows access to system functions. It contains over 200 functions to read and control system settings and to work with files and dialogs.
It is available in both Windows and Macintosh versions.
Version 4 adds support for Director 11 with use of Unicode file names on both platforms and support for Universal Binary projectors on Macintosh.
Use this to adjust sound volume - it has slightly more options than BuddyAPI, I used this to pan sound (make it louder in the left or right speaker) in a study once. See the example below on how to set the volume in Authorware.
QUESTIONNAIRES NOT in AUTHORWARE
These questionnaires are not yet available in an Authorware file as above. If you have programmed a version of these questionnaires in Authorware, please contact me so I can add it. For now, you can download the items in word.
24 items, State Action Orientation.
Koole, S. L., & Jostmann, N. B. (2004). Getting a grip on your feelings: Effects of action orientation and external demands on intuitive affect regulation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 974-990.
DispositioneleLeedvermaakSchaal.doc
van Dijk, W.W., Ouwerkerk, J. W., Goslinga, S., Nieweg, M., & Gallucci, M. (2006). When people fall from grace: reconsidering the role of envy in Schadenfreude. Emotion. 6, 156-160.
van Dijk, W.W., Ouwerkerk, J. W., Goslinga, S., & Nieweg, M. (2005). Deservingness and Schadenfreude. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 933-939.