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Behavioral Neuroscience Platform
Overview
Project Planets is a sophisticated JavaScript-based web application designed for conducting research on decision-making, risk assessment, and learning patterns. It presents an interactive space-themed environment where participants engage with different planets to earn rewards while managing the risk of pirate attacks.
Built using the jsPsych framework and deployed with Docker, the application provides a fully configurable platform for psychological research with detailed data collection capabilities. The experiment guides participants through multiple phases with varying reward-punishment contingencies, systematically revealing how people adapt their behavior based on experience.
Challenge
Developing this behavioral experiment platform required solving complex technical challenges:
Creating an engaging interactive environment while maintaining scientific control and experimental rigor
Implementing precise timing mechanisms for stimulus presentation and response measurement
Designing a probabilistic reward system with carefully calibrated parameters
Developing custom plugins extending jsPsych for specialized experimental requirements
Ensuring consistent cross-browser and cross-device behavior
Creating a flexible architecture allowing researchers to modify parameters without coding knowledge
Approach
My solution combined software engineering best practices with deep understanding of behavioral research requirements:
Built a modular architecture using JavaScript and jsPsych as the foundation
Developed custom jsPsych plugins for specialized functionality, including:
Planet response plugins handling interactive game mechanics and data collection
Inference check plugins for measuring participants' understanding of relationships between stimuli
Custom triangle slider for innovative ternary choice data collection
Implemented comprehensive deployment system with:
Cloud-provider flexibility with easy installation
Secure SSL/TLS encryption for participant data
Integrated storage through JATOS research platform
Created thorough documentation for both researchers and developers
Designed flexible configuration system allowing parameter modification without code changes
Demo
The Project Planets experiment follows a structured flow designed to measure how people learn from experience and adjust their behavior:
Experiment Flow
Phase 1: Participants interact with planets to earn rewards, learning the baseline reward probabilities for each planet
Assessment: Participants complete valence and inference checks to measure their current understanding
Phase 2: Ships are introduced that can attack and reduce points, creating a risk-reward tradeoff
Assessment: Further valence and inference checks to measure updated understanding
Phase 3: Participants are explicitly told the contingencies between planets and ships
Final Phase: Behavior is measured to see how explicit knowledge affects decision-making
Outcomes
Technical Achievements
Successfully deployed as a scalable application usable by researchers worldwide
Created reusable components adopted across multiple psychological research projects
Developed comprehensive documentation enabling non-technical researchers to modify experiment parameters
Built concurrent experiment capabilities with parameter variation
Implemented secure data collection meeting strict research ethics requirements
Research Impact
Project Planets has enabled researchers to systematically investigate:
How experience shapes risk perception and decision-making patterns
Relationships between explicit knowledge and behavioral adaptation
Individual differences in learning patterns and risk tolerance
Effects of varying reward schedules on participant behavior
The platform has contributed to published research in cognitive psychology and has been cited in studies examining probabilistic learning and decision-making under uncertainty.
Skills Demonstrated
Advanced JavaScript development
Custom plugin development for jsPsych
Research-focused web application development
UI/UX design for psychological experiments
Data collection and management systems
Technical documentation for diverse audiences
Interdisciplinary collaboration with research scientists