Maze Solving Task — IRB Fact Sheet

Description

A spatial reasoning and planning task requiring participants to solve mazes by finding the shortest path from start to finish. Uses Kruskal algorithm-generated mazes with guaranteed solutions.

Notes

Uses pre-generated maze files for standard problems
Includes both planning and execution phases
25 pre-cached mazes available for standard set

Key Parameters

problemset	Which set should be used? hard5 is a standard set of 5 difficult 15x15 mazes. standard25 are pregenerated from seeds 1 to 25, and will be sampled from. random samples from over a million possible seeds and regenerates the problem each time. If you change the problem size, you will get different problems. (default: hard5)
problems	Which problems to use from the standard25 set (default: Array)
numproblems	How many problems. We either sample this many from the problem list (if problemset is standard25), or generate this many new. (default: 5)
mazeWidth	number of cells wide the maze is, if we generate. This can take a while if you make the maze too big. (default: 15)
mazeHeight	number of cells high the maze is, if we generate. This can take a while if you make the maze too big. (default: 15)
savemazes	whether copies of the maze files should be saved to the data directory (default: 0)
showpreview	Time, in ms, to show the preview of the correct solution. using this might be an appropriate no-planning control condition, or a short memory test. When set to 0, subject gets planning time instead. (default: 0)
allowplanning	Whether planning time should be allowed. This is overriden by showpreview, where the execution starts immediately. (default: 1)

Scoring & Interpretation

Primary measures: Planning time (time before first move), path efficiency (pathlength/shortestpath ratio), solution accuracy (correct vs errors). Secondary measures: Total moves, solution time, backtracking events (from log file). Lower planning times with higher accuracy indicate better executive function and spatial planning ability.

Example Data Output (5 sample rows)

subnum	maze	shortestpath	totalmoves	pathlength	planningtime	firstmovetime	solutiontime	totaltime	moveseq	bestseq
example-data	PRACTICE	9	9	9	1577	2126	1393	3519	1\|2\|3\|4\|9\|14\|15\|20\|25	1\|2\|3\|4\|9\|14\|15\|20\|25
example-data	9	57	61	57	3461	4113	14307	18420	1\|2\|17\|18\|33\|34\|35\|20\|5\|6\|21\|22\|37\|52\|67\|68\|53\|54\|55\|40\|25\|26\|41\|42\|57\|58\|73\|74\|89\|104\|103\|102\|101\|100\|115\|130\|145\|144\|129\|128\|143\|158\|159\|174\|175\|176\|191\|192\|177\|178\|163\|164\|179\|194\|209\|210\|225	1\|2\|17\|18\|33\|34\|35\|20\|5\|6\|21\|22\|37\|52\|67\|68\|53\|54\|55\|40\|25\|26\|41\|42\|57\|58\|73\|74\|89\|104\|103\|102\|101\|100\|115\|130\|145\|144\|129\|128\|143\|158\|159\|174\|175\|176\|191\|192\|177\|178\|163\|164\|179\|194\|209\|210\|225
example-data	1	49	50	49	1479	1916	12382	14298	1\|16\|31\|32\|33\|34\|35\|36\|37\|52\|53\|68\|83\|82\|97\|96\|81\|80\|79\|94\|109\|108\|123\|122\|137\|152\|167\|168\|183\|198\|213\|214\|215\|200\|201\|202\|187\|188\|189\|190\|191\|176\|177\|178\|193\|194\|209\|224\|225	1\|16\|31\|32\|33\|34\|35\|36\|37\|52\|53\|68\|83\|82\|97\|96\|81\|80\|79\|94\|109\|108\|123\|122\|137\|152\|167\|168\|183\|198\|213\|214\|215\|200\|201\|202\|187\|188\|189\|190\|191\|176\|177\|178\|193\|194\|209\|224\|225
example-data	10	47	71	69	4222	4497	21163	25660	1\|2\|3\|18\|19\|34\|49\|64\|63\|78\|93\|108\|109\|124\|125\|126\|111\|112\|127\|128\|113\|98\|99\|114\|129\|144\|145\|160\|159\|174\|173\|158\|157\|156\|157\|158\|173\|174\|159\|160\|145\|144\|129\|114\|99\|84\|69\|70\|71\|72\|87\|102\|117\|116\|131\|132\|147\|162\|177\|178\|193\|208\|207\|206\|221\|222\|223\|224\|225	1\|2\|3\|18\|19\|34\|49\|64\|63\|78\|93\|108\|109\|124\|125\|126\|111\|112\|127\|128\|113\|98\|99\|84\|69\|70\|71\|72\|87\|102\|117\|116\|131\|132\|147\|162\|177\|178\|193\|208\|207\|206\|221\|222\|223\|224\|225
example-data	13	55	60	55	9752	10063	12943	23006	1\|16\|31\|46\|47\|48\|49\|64\|65\|50\|51\|52\|53\|38\|39\|54\|69\|84\|99\|114\|113\|128\|127\|112\|111\|126\|141\|156\|155\|170\|185\|186\|171\|172\|173\|174\|159\|160\|161\|146\|131\|130\|115\|116\|117\|118\|119\|134\|149\|150\|165\|180\|195\|210\|225	1\|16\|31\|46\|47\|48\|49\|64\|65\|50\|51\|52\|53\|38\|39\|54\|69\|84\|99\|114\|113\|128\|127\|112\|111\|126\|141\|156\|155\|170\|185\|186\|171\|172\|173\|174\|159\|160\|161\|146\|131\|130\|115\|116\|117\|118\|119\|134\|149\|150\|165\|180\|195\|210\|225