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Please pay attention during the full exent of the experiment. The provided time should be more than sufficient and the HITs submitted late will be rejected.

Do not refresh this tab at any point during the experiment, as you will not be able to reaccess it.

A short quiz will follow the instruction pages. Failing a quiz more than 3 times will result in a HIT rejection.

Before starting the experiment, please disable any color-correcting software (e.g. Flux or Night-shift), as the experiment partially relies on proper color perception.

Proceed to Consent Form

Consent to Participate in the Learning and Cognitive Control Study

  

This is a psychology experiment being conducted by Dr. Peter Dayan, director of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, and the members of his lab. In order to consent to participate, you MUST meet the following criteria:

  • 18 years of age or older.
  • Fluent speaker of English.
  • Have not previously participated in this experiment.
  • Have normal color vision.

This study is designed to look at how people learn how to make decisions to accomplish their goals. In this task, you will be asked to make choices, play games, and answer questions related to those games.

Your participation in this research is voluntary. You may refrain from answering any questions that make you uncomfortable and may withdraw your participation at any time without penalty by exiting this task and alerting the experimenter. You may choose not to complete certain parts of the task or answer certain questions. You may contact us at the address provided below if you have additional questions or concerns.

Other than monetary compensation, participating in this study will provide no direct benefits to you. But we hope that this research will benefit society at large by contributing towards establishing a scientific foundation for improving people’s learning and cognitive control abilities.

Your online username may be connected to your individual responses, but we will not be asking for any additional personally identifying information, and we will handle responses as confidentially as possible. We cannot however guarantee the confidentiality of information transmitted over the Internet. We will be keeping de-identified data collected as part of this experiment indefinitely. Data used in scientific publications will remain completely anonymous.

If you have any questions about the study, feel free to contact our lab. Dr. Dayan and his lab members can be reached at kyblab.tuebingen@gmail.com.

By selecting the “consent” option below, I acknowledge that I am 18 or older, that I am a fluent speaker of English, that I have read this consent form, and that I agree to take part in the research.

 

No, I don't want to participate.
Yes, I want to participate.

Please return the HIT

Please return the HIT if you are not comfortable with our experiment and data policies.

If you clicked 'disagree' by mistake, please click here to go back to the consent form.

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Entry Quiz

How many building blocks does every shape contain?
4 Building blocks
There is no fixed size
2 Building blocks
How much do you earn for every correct solution?
That depends on how fast you are
5 Pence
3 Pence
Which of the following statements is true?
In every trial you can choose between the same 6 building blocks, and you have unlimited time to do so.
In every trial you can choose between a random number of building blocks, and you have up to 20 seconds to do so.
In every trial you can choose between the same 6 building blocks, and you have up to 20 seconds to do so.
Submit the quiz

Entry Quiz

How many building blocks does every shape contain?
4 Building blocks
There is no fixed size
2 Building blocks
When do you get rewarded for a solution?
If you identify all building blocks necessary to build a silhouette, and none of the unnecessary ones, you get the full reward, 0 otherwise.
If you identify some of the necessary blocks, you get a portion of the full reward
If you find the solution in less than half of the allotted time, you get double reward
Which of the following statements is true?
In every trial you can choose between the same 6 building blocks, and you have unlimited time to do so.
In every trial you can choose between a random number of building blocks, and you have up to 20 seconds to do so.
In every trial you can choose between the same 6 building blocks, and you have up to 20 seconds to do so.
Submit the quiz

Time Limit Exeeded

Try to be faster next time!

Click on "Next" to start the next trial.

Next

Comment Section

If you have any comment or feedback about the experiment, please write us a message in the field below.

Quit and send feedback

Thank You!

Thank you for completing the experiment. You may now close the browser tab.

Instructions

We are interested in how people learn to construct shapes. You will learn how to build shapes similarly to playing Lego or Tetris. You will see one grey shape on the screen at a time. Your task is to find the building blocks that make up the shapes in a valid order. A block order is valid if the first block touches the floor and after that each block touches either the floor or a previously placed building block, e.g.:

When you think about the order of the building blocks, you have to consider that they need to touch each other by their facets. However, they are not subject to gravity and unstable looking constructions do not tupple. Imagine that you are sticking them together with superglue at the facets that are shown in yellow here:

We will show you 100 of these shapes. Each time, you will see the shape and 7 candidate building blocks. The building blocks won’t change - you will always receive the same basic building blocks. The position of the building blocks on the screen will change randomly. Every shape consists of 4 building blocks. Your task is to select the correct building blocks in a valid order as fast as possible by clicking on them using your computer mouse. Note that if you clicked on a building block, you can not unselect it anymore, so you should also focus on being accurate. You cannot rotate these building blocks. A trial will look like this:

Once you are done with your selection click ‘Enter’. You will then receive feedback: if the selected block order is correct, the background will flash green. If the selected order is incorrect, the background will flash red. For the first 5 shapes, the correct solution will be shown for 4 seconds to familiarise you with the task.

You have 20 seconds to find the correct solution but you should try to be as quick as possible. Your base payment for participation will be £7. You can also make up to £6 of bonus payment, depending on your performance. If you get 100% correct, you will receive a bonus of £6. You can receive a £3 bonus in the main task we just explained to you, and £3 in total in two other tasks. We will explain the other tasks before they start.

This means that every answer you give will count towards your overall payment, so you should try to give as many correct answers as possible. This bonus payment means that every correct answer in any task will give you a bonus of 3 Pence.

Note: if your internet connection is a bit slow, it may sometimes take a few moments for a shape to load. Please be a bit patient in that case, after a few moments the shape should be on the screen. You should also do the experiment in full screen mode.

Good luck, and thank you for participating.

Next

Merging building blocks

During the task, you can merge any two building blocks together to form a combined block that you will be able to use on all subsequent trials. You can use combined building blocks to increase the number of credits you gain from a task.

To do this, you can press the Combine button, which will open the merge menu. Here you can select exactly two of the six available building blocks to merge them together.

The block you selected first will appear in the center of the grid. The second selected block will be attached to your mouse pointer and you can place it at any location in the grid by moving the pointer and clicking at the desired location.

The two blocks can not overlap and you are not allowed to select more than two building blocks or already combined blocks.

You can build up to 6 combined building blocks. If you want to create new combined blocks when you already have 6, you have to remove an exisitng one using the Remove button in the merge menu.

The time you spend in the merge menu will not affect the time limit for the current task. Merging buttons is for free and will not cost you any credits.

If you solve a trial correctly, the amount of credits you earn will depend on the number of blocks you needed, counting simple and combined blocks equally.

That is:

  • Using 4 actions,you will earn a reward of 1 credit.
  • Using 3 actions,you will earn a reward of 2 credits.
  • Using 2 actions,you will earn a reward of 4 credits.
Next

Second Part

Well done - you will now do another session of the construction task.

Next

Third Part

You will now do the last session of the construction task.

Next
Time: 30
#
Enter
Combine
Save
Clear
Remove
Stop Remove
Back

Choice Task 1

Well done! Now you will do a different task. In every trial, you will see two shapes, and you should click on the one that you think is more likely to come up in the construction task. These could either be full shapes or just parts of those.

Remember that every correct answer will result in a bonus payment. Your task is to determine which of the two shapes occurs more often in the construction task.

Importantly, most but not all trials have a correct solution. Only the ones that have a correct solution will count towards your bonus payment. You will not receive feedback for your choices.

Next

Choice Task 2

You will now do another session of the choice task, where you should indicate which of two shapes is more likely to occur in the construction task. Remember that every correct answer will result in a bonus payment.

Next

Choice Task 3

You will now do the last session of the choice task, where you should indicate which of two shapes is more likely to occur based on your previous task experience. Remember that every correct answer will result in a bonus payment.

Next
Bonus Trial 15 / 30
Please select which of the two shapes (left or right) you think is more likely to occur in the construction task.
Option 1
Option 2

Drawing Task 1

Thank you! We would like to ask you to do two last brief tasks. On the next screen, you will see four empty grids. Please draw four shapes (one per grid) that you think occurred many times in the construction task. You can either draw full shapes or just characteristic parts that you think were likely to occur.

You can draw shapes simply by clicking on a tile in a grid.

Note: only draw shapes that are combinations of building blocks, not single building blocks themselves. That means that when you draw something it needs to be larger than 3 grid elements.

After this task the experiment will be finished, and you will receive payment soon. Thank you very much for participating!

Next

Drawing Task 2

Thank you! Next, you will see a final drawing screen containing two grids.

In the construction task, you may have noticed two characteristic combinations of two building blocks, forming ‘perceptual chunks’ that often form subparts of a large shape. We would like to ask you to draw these two perceptual chunks, again by clicking on individual grid elements.

Since we are asking you to draw characteristic combinations of two building blocks, your drawings need to have an exact size of 6 tiles per grid. It doesn’t matter where in the grid you draw them. If you are unsure you can draw a combination of two building blocks that seems most likely to you.

Next
Submit
Submit

Shape Completion 1

Great. We would like to ask you to do one more task before you continue with the construction task. You will see a part of a shape that consists of 3 building blocks. You can think of this as one building block being occluded (hidden), and your task is to complete this shape. Based on your previous experience, you can infer the most likely location and identity of the occluded building block.

You can complete the shape by first clicking on the building block you want to move, and then moving your cursor across the grid. You can place the building block by clicking on a location on the grid. Once you have placed the building block you cannot remove it any more.

Remember that also here every correct answer will result in a bonus payment. Whenever you complete a shape correctly, the background will flash green.

Sometimes finding the correct missing building block may be easier or harder - if you're unsure, just try to find a building block and place it at a location that you think makes sense. The building block you place has to be connected to the shape in the grid, and can't overlap with the shape.

Next

Shape Completion 2

You will now do another session of the shape completion task.

Remember: You will receive a shape where one building block is hidden, and your task is to complete this shape. You can complete the shape by first clicking on the building block you want to move, and then moving your cursor across the grid. You can place the building block by clicking on a location on the grid. Once you have placed the building block you cannot remove it any more.

Every correct answer will result in a bonus payment.

Next

Shape Completion 3

You will now do the last session of the shape completion task.

Remember you will receive a shape where one building block is hidden, and your task is to complete this shape. You can complete the shape by first clicking on the building block you want to move, and then moving your cursor across the grid. You can place the building block by clicking on a location on the grid. Once you have placed the building block you cannot remove it any more.

Every correct answer will result in a bonus payment.

Next
Shape Completion Trial 15 / 30
Please complete the shape by clicking on the building block you want to move, and then moving your cursor across the grid. You can place the building block by clicking on a location on the grid.

First Task: Target Detection

Before you will start with the main construction task, we would like you to do a simple target detection experiment. From time to time, you will be presented with a target. This target is sometimes a building block, sometimes some other picutre.

Your task is to press the SPACE BAR whenever you see the current target. If you correctly detect a target, you will win 10 pence. Pressing the space bar incorrectly will deduct 3 pence from your overall payment.

Even though you can press the space bar as often as you want during a trial, you only have to do it once, and you will also only win or lose money once for a correct/incorrect space bar press in each trial.

Whenever you press the space bar when the target is on the background colour will flash green. Whenever you incorrectly press the space bar or miss a target the background will flash red.

The target will change from time to time. Whenever this happens, you will be instructed about the target change. This means you should pay close attention to the current target instruction, and keep the target in mind until the next target change.

Next

Construction Task

You will now continue with the main construction task, as described in the instruction in the beginning.

Next

Press Space Bar if you see this image:

Continue
Miss!

Association Debriefing

In this task, you might have noticed that some building blocks were paired with some specific pictures. If you didn't notice that it's no problem at all.

In the following, you will do a short task to probe your knowledge about these pairings. You will see a building block, and your task is to select the picture that you think has been paired with that building block.

If you are unsure, simply pick the picture that you think is most likely to have been paired with that building block.

Thank you!

Next

Which of the six images do you associate with this shape?

Final Task: Navigation

In this final part of the experiment, we would like you to do a different task.

You will see two pictures on the left and on the right, and you can think of those as start and end points of a path. You want to get from start to end as fast as possible, but you don't quite know yet how the different pictures 'connect' to each other.

Your task is now to select the path that brings you from start to finish in the fastest way possible, by clicking on the pictures that allow you to travel from start to goal

Note that this means that you have to select the correct pictures in the correct order - only this will provide a correct solution.

Don't worry if you feel like this doesn't make sense in the beginning, you will learn which pictures connects to which other picture by trial-and-error. After every trial, you will receive feedback indicating a correct (green screen) or incorrect (red screen) solution.

Just like in the construction task, you will receive 3 pence for every correct solution.

Good luck!

Next

Click on the buttons to fill in the "missing" images to connect the image on the left with the one on the right.

Continue