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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.

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Comment Section

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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 (silhouettes). You will learn how to build shapes similarly to playing Lego/Tetris/Tangram. You will see one black shape on the screen at a time. Your task is to find the building blocks that make up the shapes, e.g.:

We will show you 150 of these shapes. Each time, you will see the shape and 6 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 as fast as possible by clicking on them using your computer mouse. A trial will look like this:

If you have selected a building block and would like to unselect it, you can click on the building block again. Once you are done with your selection click ‘Enter’. You will then receive feedback: if your selection is correct, the background will flash green. If your selection 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.

When you think about the construction of the shapes, you do not have to worry about gravity or how stable the shape will be. Just imagine you are moving the building blocks around on a table such that they cannot fall. Also, you cannot rotate the building blocks.

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

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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. You can take a minute to rest if you want, but please don't leave the fullscreen mode of the experiment.

Next

Third Part

Well done. You will now do the last session of the construction task. You can take a minute to rest if you want, but please don't leave the fullscreen mode of the experiment.

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.

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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 quick intermittent task before continuing with the construction task. You will see a shape that consists of 3 building blocks. You can think of this as one building block missing (hidden), and your task is to complete this shape by finding the missing building block.

Based on your previous experience, you can infer the most likely location and identity of the missing 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. To make the task a bit more challenging, you will not receive feedback after making a choice. It is very important that you try to answer as accuractely as possible.

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

Thank you. 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

Thank you. 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 task. From time to time, you will be presented with a target. This target is sometimes a building block, sometimes some other picture.

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.

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.

This target detection task will last for 10 minutes.

Important: The sequence of the buidling blocks and pictures is not random, but there is always one building block that is associated with one picture. Note that this association is bi-directional, meaning that sometimes the building block is presented before the picture, and sometimes the picture is presented before the building block. Irrespective of that sequence, there is a pairwise association between each of the building blocks with one specific picture. You will benefit substantially in all subsequent tasks if you learn these pairings, so make sure to pay close attention to the sequence of the building block and picture presentations.

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

Thank you! We have one final very brief questionnaire. In the previous experiment, you might have noticed that some building blocks were paired with some specific pictures.

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 one more task. This task is a bit different to the previous ones, so please carefully read the instructions below.

You will see a picture on the left and on the right of the screen, and you can think of those as start and end points of a path . Your task is to find the path from start to end, but you don't quite know yet how the different pictures 'connect' to each other.

As an analogy, you can think of these pictures as locations on a map, but you can't travel directly from one location to another. Instead, have to travel through some other locations first. For example, to get from your home to work you might have to go to the bus stop or the underground first, which will take you to work. Here, 'home', 'bus stop' and 'work' are represented by the different abstract pictures that you saw in the beginning of the experiment (target detection).

Your task is to select the path that brings you from the start to the end point by clicking on the picture/s that connect the start to the goal point, in the correct order. To make it a bit easier in the beginning, you will only get paths where one picture (location) is missing, i.e. you only have to click on one picture. Towards the end, you have to find paths of length 2. You will be told about the length of a path that you should find in a given trial (text at the top of the screen), so it's very important to pay attention to that.

Important: There can be several paths of different lengths between a start and end point. For example, you can go from home to work directly via the bus stop, or you can get there by going to the supermarket first, and then going to the bus stop. Depending on the instruction, you may sometimes need to find a path of length 1 or a path of length 2 between the same start and end points.

For any given trial, specified by a start and end point and a specific length of a path connecting these points, there will always be only one correct solution. In our analogy, to get from home to work in one step can only happen via the bus stop, but to get there in two steps can only happen via the supermarket, followed by the bus stop.

Don't worry if you feel like this doesn't make sense in the beginning, you will learn which picture connects to which other picture over time. In the beginning of the task, you will not get feedback on your choices, because we are interested in whether you have any intuition on how to solve this. A bit later in the task, you will receive feedback after every trial 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. Depending on your learning speed, this task will take about 10-20 minutes.

Thanks a lot, and 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