feedback contingent on response time

[David McFarlane]

Tracy,

Thank you for including all the necessary script excerpts, I like 
that a lot better than having to wade through a complete attached program.

Well, I have a lot to say about this, mostly about programming style, 
since in fact I do not see why your script does not work.  But I will 
propose a solution in the end.


First, since the OverallRT appears in your E-DataAid file, I assume 
that you have verified that it does indeed go above 1500 ms in your 
debugging runs.  Otherwise I would be concerned lest your progam 
simply does not allow responses past 1500 ms.  Also, note that 
without a response you will get a RT of 0, and this will bring the 
average down, so you might want to make sure to take care of that 
(unless you just left that out of your excerpts), something like

If Stimuls5.RT > 0 Then  ' got a response
     OverallRT.AddObservation Stimulus5.RT
Else  ' no response
     OverallRT.AddObservation <maximum possible RT>
End If


Second, look closely at your If... Then... ElseIf cascade, and see 
what happens if OverallRT exactly equals 1500, or OverallACC exactly 
equals 80.  Your If ... Then does not cover those cases, and in that 
case your script does nothing.  Did you mean to do that?  If not, 
then somewhere in there you should have some "<=" or ">=" instead of 
"<" or ">".  Also, good practice dictates that you have a final Else 
clause even if your program should never get there (I call this a 
"sanity check"), we call practices like this "defensive programming" 
(look that up on Wikipedia).


Third, if it were me, instead of modifying object text directly, as in

BlockACC.Text = "Your average accuracy is " & ...

I would use an attribute reference, as in

c.SetAttrib "BlockACC", "Your average accuracy is " & ...

At the very least, an attribute reference in the object alerts the 
programmer that this value will be modified at run time, otherwise 
the programmer has no clue that text will be modified in script.  But 
this may come down to a matter of personal programming style.


Fourth, I note that your message always starts with
"Your average accuracy is " & c.GetAttrib("OverallACC") & " % and 
your responses are "
I would take advantage of that in clarifying the script with a rewrite.


Fifth, I would say that, unless this is meant just as an 
instructional program, your program is over commented.  Things like 
the .AddObservation method and Debug.Print should be general 
background knowledge for anyone using E-Prime, and do not need to be 
explained in program comments, that just makes the program harder to 
read.  Comments should be reserved to answer *specific* questions 
that may occur to others reading the script.


So much for my unsolicited $.02.  Now, if it were me, I might use an 
attribute reference for the text in BlockACC (e.g., [BlockACC]), and 
completely rewrite your If... Then script.  Let's assume that RT = 
1500 is still fast, and ACC = 80 is still good, then the script might 
come out like this:

Dim  blockACC as String  ' just for convenience

' Message always starts the same:
blockACC = "Your average accuracy is " & c.GetAttrib("OverallACC") _
     & " % and your responses are "
If c.GetAttrib("OverallRT") <= 1500 Then  ' fast RT
     blockACC = blockACC & "fast."  ' all done if good ACC
     If c.GetAttrib("OverallACC") < 80 Then  ' poor ACC
         blockACC = blockAcc & " Please try harder."
     End If
Else  ' slow RT
     blockACC = blockACC & "slow."
     If c.GetAttrib("OverallACC") < 80 Then  ' poor ACC
         blockACC = " Please try harder."
     Else  ' good ACC
         blockACC = blockACC & " Good Job and please respond quickly."
     End If
End If
c.SetAttrib "BlockACC", blockACC


No doubt with a little thought you can improve even further on this.
-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder


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