In line problems

Wed Mar 21 23:43:28 UTC 2007

Slightly off-topic, but still some friendly advise:
Don't know about your participants, but somehow, mine don't seem to want to
take a break. I just finished an experiment that took one and a half hour,
but they did not come out of the lab cubicle (which is NOT a friendly work
environment!), even though:
- They were told there was to be one break in the middle of the experiment
and that the experiment was calculated to be exactly 84 minutes excluding
the five minutes of relaxing (the other one minute was for explaining the
experiment).
- During the break, E-Prime (or me, depending on your idea of causation)
told them the five minutes started, and heavily recommended stepping outside
the lab and go for some coffee. I've done quite a bit of piloting and I can
assure you, it puts quite a bit of strain on your concentration.
- Also, they were told the break could not be skipped in any way (well, they
could unplug the computer), and that the experiment would not automatically
start after five minutes.
So, basically, people could either sit, gazing at a CRT screen watching five
textdisplays counting back the minutes from 5 to "0, press the spacebar to
continue", or get some refreshment, walk around, chat with the
lab-assistant, ask what they are doing, etc.

But they did not. So, my point in this story is that, unless your
participants are very different, they will try to continue doing the
experiment as fast as they can (even if they can't influence the time spent)
and few will take a break. If they are different, it won't hurt to make the
break compulsory!

Cheers,

Mich

(i suppose making the screen turn black - with a black textdisplay - should
also prompt the participants to leave the lab to take a break)

-----Original Message-----
From: eprime at mail.talkbank.org [mailto:eprime at mail.talkbank.org] On Behalf
Of psp48d at bangor.ac.uk
Sent: woensdag 21 maart 2007 22:21
To: De Brito, Stephane
Cc: eprime at mail.talkbank.org
Subject: RE: In line problems

Many thanks to all the helpful replies, it is much appreciated. And im sure
my
participants will also be grateful to you all for a nice rest in the middle
of
this experiment!!

Jim Grange.

Quoting "De Brito, Stephane" <Stephane.DeBrito at iop.kcl.ac.uk>:

> Hi Jim,
>  
> I have designed an experiment with 2 rest periods. I did the following: I
> created a trial counter which I declared in the User script  and wrote in
a
> global inline at the begining of my experiment (gnTrial_Counter =0) In my
> trialproc timeline, I put an empty textdisplay object, which I called
> 'break'. I assigned it an infinite duration and the spacebar as allowable
> reponse in the object property. I put a Label after the 'break'
textdisplay
> so that the textdisplay is skipped except on trial 120 and trial 240.
Below
> is the script I used in my inline before the textdisplay object. Hope this
> helps. Get back to me if it's not clear.
>  
> best,
>  
> stephane 
>  
> 
> gnTrial_Counter = gnTrial_Counter+1
> 
>  
> 
> if gnTrial_Counter = 120 then
> 
>  
> 
>             break.Text = "Have a break now" &_
> 
>                                                 "\nPress the spacebar when
> you want to continue"
> 
> elseif gnTrial_Counter = 240 then
> 
>             break.Text = "Have a break now" &_
> 
>                                                 "\nPress the spacebar when
> you want to continue"
> 
> else 
> 
>             Goto Label1
> 
>  end if
> 
>  
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Stephane De Brito, PhD student
> Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London
> Forensic Mental Health Science Department
> Box P023
> De Crespigny Park
> Denmark Hill
> London SE5 8AF
> United Kingdom
> 
> Tel: + 44 (0) 20 7848 0711
> Fax: + 44 (0) 20 7848 0754
> website: www.iop.kcl.ac.uk
> 
> 
> ________________________________
> 
> From: eprime at mail.talkbank.org on behalf of psp48d at bangor.ac.uk
> Sent: Wed 21/03/2007 16:41
> To: eprime at mail.talkbank.org
> Subject: In line problems
> 
> 
> 
> Dear E-Prime Experts,
> 
> I have designed an experiment that has 196 trials, and I wanted to
introduce
> a
> text page after trial 98 offering a rest period to the participant. My
> problem
> is twofold:
> 
> 1)First of all I tried to get e-prime to keep track of what trial we are
on
> by
> referncing the "Block" attribute. I did this as follows:
> 
> Dim Trial
> Trial=c.GetAttrib ("Block")
> 
> However, when running it, e-prime did not recognise block as an attribute.
So
> I
> tried to create my own:
> 
> Dim Trial as integer
> Trial = Trial + 1
> 
> This also did not work.
> 
> 2)Secondly, I placed the "rest" page in my trialproc timeline, and tried
to
> get
> e-prime to access it via an 'inline' at the end of the timeline:
> 
> If Trial = 98 then
> Rest.run
>         'referncing my textpage for the rest period
> Else fixation.run
>         'this last line is trying to get e-prime to revert to the
beginning
>         'of the trialproc timeline if the trial is not 98. This doesn't
work
> End if
> 
> How do I get e-prime to keep track of the trial number, and how do I
> introduce a
> rest page if a certain trial number is satisfied?
> 
> Yours in confusion!
> 
> Jim Grange.
> University of Wales, Bangor.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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--
This mail sent through http://webmail.bangor.ac.uk

-- 
Gall y neges e-bost hon, ac unrhyw atodiadau a anfonwyd gyda hi,
gynnwys deunydd cyfrinachol ac wedi eu bwriadu i'w defnyddio'n unig
gan y sawl y cawsant eu cyfeirio ato (atynt). Os ydych wedi derbyn y
neges e-bost hon trwy gamgymeriad, rhowch wybod i'r anfonwr ar
unwaith a dilëwch y neges. Os na fwriadwyd anfon y neges atoch chi,
rhaid i chi beidio â defnyddio, cadw neu ddatgelu unrhyw wybodaeth a
gynhwysir ynddi. Mae unrhyw farn neu safbwynt yn eiddo i'r sawl a'i
hanfonodd yn unig  ac nid yw o anghenraid yn cynrychioli barn
Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor. Nid yw Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor yn gwarantu
bod y neges e-bost hon neu unrhyw atodiadau yn rhydd rhag firysau neu
100% yn ddiogel. Oni bai fod hyn wedi ei ddatgan yn uniongyrchol yn
nhestun yr e-bost, nid bwriad y neges e-bost hon yw ffurfio contract
rhwymol - mae rhestr o lofnodwyr awdurdodedig ar gael o Swyddfa
Cyllid Prifysgol Cymru, Bangor.  www.bangor.ac.uk

This email and any attachments may contain confidential material and
is solely for the use of the intended recipient(s).  If you have
received this email in error, please notify the sender immediately
and delete this email.  If you are not the intended recipient(s), you
must not use, retain or disclose any information contained in this
email.  Any views or opinions are solely those of the sender and do
not necessarily represent those of the University of Wales, Bangor.
The University of Wales, Bangor does not guarantee that this email or
any attachments are free from viruses or 100% secure.  Unless
expressly stated in the body of the text of the email, this email is
not intended to form a binding contract - a list of authorised
signatories is available from the University of Wales, Bangor Finance
Office.  www.bangor.ac.uk