6.1 Release Notes

[jodeleeuw]

Drafting release notes here as work on 6.1 progresses

New Features

• Added an option to specify an event handler for on_close in jsPsych.init(). This event is triggered when the user leaves the page. It can be used to save the data and/or state of the experiment just before the window is closed and the data is lost (add event handler for unload #324).
• Added jsPsych.getProgressBarCompleted(), which returns the current value of the progress bar. Works for automated and manual control mode of the progress bar (Add a method to get the current value of progress bar #538).
• Video files will now preload. Thanks @andytwoods ! (support video preloading using same methods as audio/images #408, preloading video #535).
• The survey-text plugin now supports a required parameter. (required parameter for survey-text plugin (feature request) #460).
• Individual data values in the data parameter can now be functions that are evaluated at the start of the trial (Allow functions for individual elements in data parameter #562).
• Created three new plugins for video stimulus with different response options: video-keyboard-response, video-button-response, and video-slider-response. Thanks @designatednerd ! (Create video-* plugins #636; Add video trial requiring a keyboard response #622).
• The video plugins now supports setting the playback rate. Thanks @r-b-g-b ! (Option to set video playback rate #590).
• Added cloze test plugin. Thanks @sprengholz ! (Cloze Test #555).
• A custom label can be specified for the automatic progress bar. Thanks @retowyss ! (Enable language option for progress bar #609).
• All survey plugins now support randomize_question_order parameter, which randomly reorders all questions (Option to randomize question order in survey plugins #305).
• The various image- plugins now allow for setting the height and width of the image by the parameters stimulus_height and stimulus_width. The parameter maintain_aspect_ratio can be used to automatically resize one dimension when specifying the other (Add options for controlling image dimensions to image-* plugins #560).
• The slider plugins now support a parameter called require_movement. When set to true, the continue button is disabled until the slider has been moved (html-slider-response forced slider click #573).
• The slider plugins now have a parameter called slider_width which can be used to set the width of the slider in pixels (Allow specifying slider width in *-slider plugins #631).
• Added a new plugin that supports a more versatile set of html form elements, survey-html-form. Thanks @jansim ! (Added very simple alternative jspsych-survey-html-form plugin #602).
• Added jsPsych.randomization.shuffleAlternateGroups() which allows for shuffling based on a group membership, ensuring that items from each group are spaced evenly and in a consistent group order (Provide way to alternate random samples in timeline vars #528).
• Added alternate-groups option to sampling methods for timeline variables (Provide way to alternate random samples in timeline vars #528).
• Added a parameter to jsPsych.init to control the width of the experiment display, experiment_width (Provide a parameter to specify the maximum width of the experiment display #635).
• The survey-likert plugin now has a parameter scale_width to specify the width of the likert scales in pixels (add parameter to control scale width for likert plugin #633).
• All the survey plugins now support a name parameter in the questions array. This parameter controls the name of the response in the data, replacing the default of Q0, Q1, etc. (allow custom names for survey data key IDs #608).

Changes

• Dropped support for Date.now() as a method for measuring RT. Browser support for performance.now() is now widespread (exclusively use performance.now() #492).
• .variance() and .sd() now calculate sample variance and standard deviation instead of population variance and standard deviation (.variance() [and therefore .sd()] calculated using N instead of N-1 [Bessel's correction] #601).
• In nested timeline structures, data properties that do not conflict between a nested node and their parent node will now both be added to the data structure. Previously, only the nested node's data was added, even if the data properties were not in conflict (trial level data overwrites timeline data even when props aren't shared #391).
• Added more informative error messages for some functions in the randomization module (More informative error messages for utility functions #389).
• The value parameter for the survey-text plugin has been replaced with placeholder and the text is now used as a proper placeholder attribute (Create proper placeholder text for text fields #627).
• The survey-multi-select plugin required parameter is now specified at the question level to be consistent with other survey plugins. Proper HTML5 form validation is used to display the error message (survey-multi-select plugin not obeying required parameter #629).
• The jspsych-RDK plugin was renamed to jspsych-rdk to be consistent with other plugins. Thanks @vrsivananda ! (Pr/575 #630; Fixed opposite_coherence function #575).
• Various documentation improvements and updates (document jsPsych.timelineVariable(..., true) #607, timeline_variables not working for audio #524).

Bug Fixes

• Div IDs were incorrectly generated in the survey-text plugin (Error in ID generation in survey text question #576).
• The survey-text plugin was reloading the page on form submission in Safari and Edge. Thanks @nabsul ! (safari: survey-text submit causes page to refresh #610; Add missing preventDefault() call to survey-text plugin submit #613).
• The survey-text plugin has proper auto focus on the first input element (survey-text autofocus no longer working #580).
• Full screen event data is now properly recorded in recent versions of Firefox (Interaction data on Firefox 64 reports 'fullscreenexit' when exiting AND entering fullscreen #597).
• The loading progress bar should no longer be larger than expected (preloading progress bar grows out of screen #603).
• Default values were not properly used when the plugin had a nested parameter (e.g., the questions parameter in the various survey-* plugins). Defaults are now used as expected (Default parameters not working for complex parameters #628).
• The default_iti parameter in jsPsych.init() is working as intended (default_iti not working #632).