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Flow

As you read in previous chapter, each new expeirment inherits from the BrainVR.UnityFramework.Expeirments.Experiment class. This class has a certain logic and flow that is described below.

Experiment flow

Each experiment is separated to following phases:

1. ExperimentInitialise
2. ExperimentSetup
3. ExperimentStart
4. ExperimentFinish
5. ExperimentClose

Trials run only after Expeirment is started and before it is finished. Initialisation and setup are used for instantiating oobjects and setups that need to be done in certain order. We provide two separate functions just in case somebody needs it.

Unlike Trial functions, expeirment functions cannot be run separately, they are run in blocks of 1-3 and 4-5 with StartExperiment and FinishExpeirment functions. You don't necessarilly need to use FinishExpeirment function, as the experiment finishes automatically if the CheckForEnd() function evaluates to true.

Each stage has OnExperiment[Setup/Start ..] and `AfterExperiment[Setup/Start..] abstract functions that need to be implemented. These functions can remain empty, but Experiment will call them during execution.

Example:

private void ExperimentSetup()
{
    OnExperimentSetup();
    if (ShouldLog) StartLogging();
    SendExperimentStateChanged(ExperimentState.WaitingToStart);
    ExperimentState = ExperimentState.WaitingToStart;
    AfterExperimentSetup();
}

You can see that the Experiment setup function will eventually call both OnExperimentSetup and AfterExperimentSetup functions so your child needs to implement them. usually On fuynction is called in the very beginning, and After functino at an end, but there are some exceptions that should make things cascade less violently. E.g. experimentStart calls AfterExpeirmentStart function before calling TrialSetup. this is because otherwise trial would be already already setup, when the callback would return to the function and started calling After function.

If these exceptions or other positioning causes problems with timing, feel free to change the order in the Experiment class.

Trial flow

Each Trial is set to following stages

1. Setup
2. Start
3. Finish
4. Close

Each stage has OnTrial[Setup/Start ..] and AfterTrial[Setup/Start ..] functions that need to be implemented in a similar way as the expeirment does.

Force finishing trial

I provide special case for skipping or force finishing trials. Because sometimes quitting trial in a middle can have unexpected effects (for example you subscribed to an event and never unsubscribed, because that happens before trial is finished). Function TrialSetNext(int trialNumber) force finishes a trial. Default virtual behaviour is to FinishTrial(), but you can override this. Don't forget to FinishTrial() in the override (or call base);