All partner organizations are responsible for completing a configuration form for each ACE Configuration or prefix used. This form lets our team know important information we need to track and manage your ACE research. The form asks for several ACE design decisions that will be important for your team to consider. Please note you will need a password to access this form. It will be provided by your Partner Manager after your MOU is complete.
Choosing a Configuration Prefix
In the configuration form, you’ll be asked to create a configuration prefix. During configuration set up (see below), Nexus will validate your prefix to ensure it is unique from other prefixes already in use.
Your participants will use this prefix to log in to ACE. Upon login, our system will validate this prefix against our registered prefixes in our system. This prefix will be used to identify all of the participants that receive a particular configuration. If the prefix is not entered correctly, users will receive an error message and be prompted to try again.
Because this prefix will be used as a unique identifier, we ask you to use a combination of pi/institution/research group and study name with a minimum of three characters. For example, you might use NS-BSE for a study named ‘Best Study Ever’ conducted by the Neuroscape research group.
This prefix must be entered exactly for each participant to receive your study configurations and for you to be able to access the data, so it should be short enough to identify your study, but not so long as to be prone to error.
The prefix IS case sensitive and all prefixes must be followed by an underscore before the participant id. For example, if you request NS-BSE, you will enter NS-BSE_0001.
You can but do not have to use dashes (i.e., NSBSE or NS-BSE are both acceptable as potential prefixes, but if you request NS-BSE the dash must be included or the prefix will not validate). Underscores and other special characters CANNOT be used as part of the prefix (e.g., NS_BSE will NOT validate)
Choosing a Platform
ACE is available on iOS, android, and web browser platforms. We have found that different platforms have different capabilities in the precision with which reaction times can be reported. Particularly, the difference between touch-screen (tablets) and keyboard (web browser) can be variable. Therefore, we highly recommend you use a single platform for any given study to ensure consistency in measurement across your participants. Your chosen prefix will validate on all platforms.
Please indicate which platform(s) you want to use on the form so we can help manage your study if you have technical difficulties.
Choosing Modules
Please see the game summary for a short description of each module, the length of time, and the construct it measures. When you set up your ACE Configuration, you can specify which modules should be used and what order they should be played in (though specifying an order is not required).
Choosing other Configurations
ACE has additional configurations described below:
Days Before Closing. ACE saves progress after each completed module, so if participants do not complete the full session in one setting, they can log back in with the same user ID and pick up where they left off. You can set how many days a participant can log in and resume their session before it ‘closes’. Once the task closes, participants will begin a fresh session upon their next log in.
Once you have decided on how to design your ACE Configuration and have the usernames for study staff, you’re ready to fill out the study form!