how to properly load stimulus into Cognition.run?

[sonhkim]

Hi all! 🙂

My jsPsych experiment runs without an issue on its own, but I can't make it run on Cognition.run. I think it has to do with the stimulus file ("stims.js").

So here's what I am doing: I upload the stims.js file using the window which is on the left side of Cognition.run. Then, I'm unclear what I should do the next. In jsPsych, you can do <script src = "path to stim file">. But how do you do that with Cognition.run? Does Cognition automatically recognize the variable "stims" that's defined in the stim.js file? (It seems not).

So far, I tried the following line in the code:
var stims = "stims.js";

but this doesn't work (please see the first screenshot). When I go into the console, it says the following:
jspsych.js:965 You must specify a value for the prompt parameter (nested in the questions parameter) in the survey-likert plugin.

If I just define the variable "stims" within the code (i.e., uncomment lines 16-19), then the problem goes away and the experiment starts running on Cognition.run. So what might be the problem?

The stims.js file has the following content in it:

var stims = [
{"attribute": "xx", "word": "yy", "question": "blablah"},
{"attribute": "xx", "word": "yy", "question": "blablah"}.
]

Thank you for your help in advance!

[becky-gilbert]

Hi @sonhkim, yes if you upload your stims.js file in cognition.run then the stims variable that's defined in that file should be available. You shouldn't have to do anything else. Can you try removing this line:

var stims = "stims.js";

Because that will overwrite the stims variable that's defined in your file.

I'd that doesn't fix it then I'm not sure what else could be causing the error. Maybe double-check that there aren't any errors in your stims.js file. And you can check that you have access to it in the main code by adding console.log(stims) somewhere. Then if you preview the study with the developer tools open, you should see the stims array in the console.

[sonhkim]

Hi @becky-gilbert, thank you for such a prompt reply! I tried that but it didn't work. The console now directly complained about stims not being defined: code.js:13 Uncaught ReferenceError: stims is not defined. I don't know why this doesn't work for me.

But guess what, I uploaded the stim.js file into the "external JS/CSS" window, not the stims window, and removed the following line from the code, as you suggested,
var stims = "stims.js";
and now it works like a charm!!! 🥳

Much thanks to the following thread (#1227 (reply in thread)).