PEBL's Time-Tapping Test

Description: A motor timing task where participants tap at a specified rate for multiple trials.
The test measures low-level motor timing ability and temporal entrainment.

Michon, J. A. (1966). Tapping regularity as a measure of perceptual motor load. Ergonomics, 9(5), 401-412.


Based on: 
INTERVAL PRODUCTION TASK (UTC-PAB TEST NO. 19)
(RESPONSE TIMING)
PURPOSE
This task was designed to be used as a secondary task to measure demands
placed on motor output by a primary task (Michon, 1966). However, it may
be used as a stand alone test to examine the degree to which variables such
as drugs, environmental stress, and toxic substances disrupt manual
response timing


Duration: Approximately 9 minutes (3 trials of 180 seconds each, configurable)

Task: Participants observe a fixation cross blinking at a target rate, then continue tapping
at that rate after the cue disappears. Each trial uses a different target tapping rate
(randomized between minimum and maximum tap times).

Parameters:
- numtrials: Number of trials (default: 3)
- trialtime: Duration of each trial in seconds (default: 180)
- mintaptime: Fastest tapping rate in ms (default: 250ms)
- maxtaptime: Slowest tapping rate in ms (default: 1000ms)
- trainingflashes: Number of entrainment flashes (default: 10)

Output: CSV file with trial-by-trial tap data including target time, number of taps,
timestamps, and inter-tap intervals.

Browser Compatibility: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge (latest versions)

Timing Note: This is a timing-critical task. Browser timing precision is ~16ms
which is sufficient for this task's tap time ranges (250-1000ms).

Citation: Mueller, S. T. (2011). The PEBL Time-Tapping Task. Computer software
retrieved from http://pebl.sf.net/battery.html
