Randomising the Fixation duration

[David McFarlane]

Krupa,

Glad it worked for you.  But it bugged me that 
Mich's code did not work, so I looked into it 
myself.  Indeed, when I hurriedly tried it, I got 
the compile-time error, 'Left of "." must be an 
object, structure, or dialog.'  That seemed odd, 
I looked more closely and saw that I had misnamed 
my TextDisplay as "FixtationDisplay" instead of 
"FixationDisplay".  Fixed that, and for the 
record, Mich's code worked just fine.  So I 
expect something like that happened to you, very 
easy to do.  Glad you got it to work in any case, 
and posted back with your success.

-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder


>Thanks all for the very useful advice.
>
>I tried to follow Michiel's inline line of thought using her code
>suffix but it was coming to an E-Prime error. After having tried that
>provided by David; it worked.. i even checked it out on the E-DataAid
>file and all fixation durations were randomised... HALLELUJAH!!
>
>Thanks so much. I really appreciate it :)
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Krupa
>Research Associate
>Cerebra Centre of Neurodevelopmental Disorders
>University of Birmingham
>Edgbaston
>B15 2TT
>
>On May 31, 3:56 pm, David McFarlane <mcfar... at msu.edu> wrote:
> > Stock reminder:  1) I do not work for PST.  2)
> > PST's trained staff takes any and all questions
> > athttp://support.pstnet.com/e%2Dprime/support/login.asp
> > , and they strive to respond to all requests in
> > 24-48 hours -- 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...
> >
> > First, I agree that you would do well to work
> > through Mich's E-Primer, as well as the Getting
> > Started and User's Guides that came with E-Prime.
> >
> > Now, the inline code method allows you to easily
> > randomize down to the ms, and without using
> > attribute references.  OTOH, the lack of an
> > attribute reference means that the data log
> > contains no record of the randomized fixation
> > duration.  So I would modify Mich's example as follows:
> >
> > c.SetAttrib "FixDur", Random(1500,3500)
> >
> > Then, in my fixation object, I would set Duration to "[FixDur]".  Done.
> >
> > But if you don't mind (or even prefer) a coarser
> > grain (say, 1500 - 3500 ms in steps of 100 ms)
> > then you can accomplish this without any inline
> > code.  Just use a List, or perhaps a nested List,
> > to hold all the possible fixation durations, and
> > set the List Selection to Random.  Suppose we
> > call that attribute (i.e., column)
> > "FixDur".  Then, as before, in your fixation
> > object set Duration to "[FixDur]".  Done.  (For
> > more on nested Lists in particular, see Appendix
> > C of the User's Guide that came with E-Prime.)
> >
> > -- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder
> >
> > At 5/31/2011 10:26 AM Tuesday, Michiel Spape wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >It's actually somewhere in the E-Primer:
> > >http://www.cognitology.eu/pubs/AnE-Primer2009.pdf
> > >  as an example of what to do with line-in
> > >stuff... I suggest going through the last 2 chapters, or earlier.
> > >But, then again, if you have a textdisplay
> > >showing just a +, called FixationDisplay, and a
> > >short inline before that:
> > >FixationDisplay.Duration = Random(1500,3500) - you're done.
> > >Best,
> > >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 Krupa Sheth
> > >Sent: 31 May 2011 14:34
> > >To: E-Prime
> > >Subject: Randomising the Fixation duration
> >
> > >Hi! I been totally baffled by this and I am sure there is a way where
> > >to over come this.
> >
> > >Is there any function in E-Prime that allows the fixation point ("+")
> > >to appear for a random duration between 1500ms to 3500ms. I am sure it
> > >is possible but am so clueless how to do it.
> >
> > >Many Thanks!!

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