URGENT help needed! : Object amount limit?

[Michiel Spape]

Hi,
Also, it needs to be said: why on earth does every question needs to be its own object? Here's the real question: does your professor mean 'every question needs to be a different instance' or 'every question needs to be a different object'? In E-Prime and in every object-oriented question, the latter makes absolutely no sense. To put it differently, every question you will ask makes use of different instances of words; but every word is not a NEW object; it's a new instance of the object 'word'. You can conceive how difficult it would be for a human to generate a new 'word' on the spot complete with new phonemes and different guttural sounds! 
So the point is: you have ONE textdisplay with the text saying merely [TheQuestion], ONE attribute "TheQuestion" in a list which [TheQuestion] refers to and 1000s of rows (if you must use E-Prime anyway and choose to disregard David's comments - that I should mention I support and second, by the way) in which TheQuestion is each time a new question. Thus, your ONE textdisplay can show 1000s of questions. What exactly would be the benefit (apart from fulfilling an intense desire to make both the student and computer work very hard?) by using 1000s of objects?

In defence of people using E-Prime for questionnaires, I would like to add the following: sometimes it *is* useful to use E-Prime for things it isn't used to, because the rest of the experiment does require it. Personally, I commonly add a handedness questionnaire to my experiments, basically so that it makes it really easy to, later on, combine the experimental and subjective data. I know questionnaires are much easier to make in just about every other way, but I can be really flaky when it comes to combining data, for example, using two different types of codes for participants (p201 and n1 often being the same person, for instance). Counselling is expensive, though, so I just try to live with myself and recognising the problem, just use E-Prime for both types of data!  
Cheers,
Mich


Michiel Spapé
Research Fellow
Perception & Action group
University of Nottingham
School of Psychology
www.cognitology.eu

-----Original Message-----
From: e-prime at googlegroups.com [mailto:e-prime at googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of David McFarlane
Sent: 26 August 2010 22:10
To: e-prime at googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: URGENT help needed! : Object amount limit?

Stock reminder:  1) I do not work for PST.  2) PST's trained staff 
takes any and all questions at 
http://support.pstnet.com/e%2Dprime/support/login.asp , and they 
strive to respond to all requests in 24-48 hours (although current 
estimates are more like 10 days) -- this is pretty much their 
substitute for proper documentation, so make full use of it.  3) If 
you do get an answer from PST Web Support, please extend the courtesy 
of posting their reply back here for the sake of others.

That said, here is my take...

You may indeed have hit a limit on the number of objects that E-Prime 
can handle, that is a lot of objects and an odd use of E-Prime.  But 
you should contact PST Web Support to make sure, and then please post 
back here with the answer.

But now, as is my wont, I will address the larger unaddressed 
issue.  Does your professor know what they are doing?  Have they ever 
done anything like this themselves in E-Prime?  E-Prime makes a very 
poor tool for just running questionnaires, especially when you have 
no need for millisecond timing.  Many better tools exist for this purpose.

And as far as the demand to finish by the end of next week, too many 
researchers hold unrealistic expectations for the world, their staff 
& students, and their technology.  Some people just need a reality 
check -- see my signature quote below.  Have your professor give me a 
phone call and I will personally give them a stern talking to.

-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over 
public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."  (Richard Feynman, 
Nobel prize-winning physicist)


dpschpak wrote:
>I am trying to construct an experiment of many questionnaires, and my
>Prof wants each question to be it's own object and for it to all be in
>one experiment. Given the nature of these questionnaires that will
>require hundreds (possibly breaking into 1000+) of TextDisplays,
>InLines, and Labels. I've been adding TextDisplays and received this
>error message:
>
>Unable to get Toolbox item.
>
>I can't seem to add any more TextDisplays. Have I reached some sort of
>object limit?
>She wants me to finish this by the end of next week so I need help
>ASAP. Anyone ever have this problem?

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