README.md

Rhythm Ability Test (RAT)

DOI

The RAT is an adaptive test for rhythmic pattern recognition.

Citation

We also advise mentioning the software versions you used, in particular the versions of the RAT, psychTestR, and psychTestRCAT packages. You can find these version numbers from R by running the following commands:

library(RAT)
library(psychTestR)
library(psychTestRCAT)
if (!require(devtools)) install.packages("devtools")
x <- devtools::session_info()
x$packages[x$packages$package %in% c("RAT", "psychTestR", "psychTestRCAT"), ]

Installation instructions (local use)

  1. If you don't have R installed, install it from here: https://cloud.r-project.org/

  2. Open R.

  3. Install the ‘devtools’ package with the following command:

install.packages('devtools')

  1. Install the RAT:

devtools::install_github('klausfrieler/RAT')

Usage

Quick demo

You can demo the RAT at the R console, as follows:

# Load the RAT package
library(RAT)

# Run a demo test, with feedback as you progress through the test,
# and not saving your data
RAT_demo()

# Run a demo test, skipping the training phase, and only asking 5 questions, as well a changinge the language
RAT_demo(num_items = 5, take_training = FALSE, language = "DE")

Testing a participant

The RAT_standalone() function is designed for real data collection. In particular, the participant doesn't receive feedback during this version.

# Load the RAT package
library(RAT)

# Run the test as if for a participant, using default settings,
# saving data, and with a custom admin password
RAT_standalone(admin_password = "put-your-password-here")

You will need to enter a participant ID for each participant. This will be stored along with their results.

Each time you test a new participant, rerun the RAT_standalone() function, and a new participation session will begin.

You can retrieve your data by starting up a participation session, entering the admin panel using your admin password, and downloading your data. For more details on the psychTestR interface, see http://psychtestr.com/.

The RAT currently supports English (EN) and German (DE). You can select one of these languages by passing a language code as an argument to RAT_standalone(), e.g. RAT_standalone(languages = "DE"), or alternatively by passing it as a URL parameter to the test browser, eg. http://127.0.0.1:4412/?language=DE (note that the p_id argument must be empty).

Installation instructions (Shiny Server)

  1. Complete the installation instructions described under 'Local use'.
  2. If not already installed, install Shiny Server Open Source: https://www.rstudio.com/products/shiny/download-server/
  3. Navigate to the Shiny Server app directory.

cd /srv/shiny-server

  1. Make a folder to contain your new Shiny app. The name of this folder will correspond to the URL.

sudo mkdir RAT

  1. Make a text file in this folder called app.R specifying the R code to run the app.

  2. To open the text editor: sudo nano RAT/app.R

  3. Write the following in the text file:
library(RAT)
RAT_standalone(admin_password = "put-your-password-here")

sudo chown -R shiny RAT

where shiny is the username for the Shiny process user (this is the usual default).

  1. Navigate to your new shiny app, with a URL that looks like this: `http://my-web-page.org:3838/RAT

Implementation notes

By default, the RAT implementation always estimates participant abilities using weighted-likelihood estimation. We adopt weighted-likelihood estimation for this release because this technique makes fewer assumptions about the participant group being tested. This makes the test better suited to testing with diverse participant groups (e.g. children, clinical populations).

Usage notes



klausfrieler/RAT documentation built on April 28, 2023, 11:12 a.m.