eprime timing issues and wierd time log

Mon Jun 30 08:39:33 UTC 2014

Hi Sally,

Once you set the timing mode to cumulative, E-Prime will try to 'fix' any
delays by modifying onsets and durations on the fly. So, that explains why
the timing issue disappears when you change the timing mode to something
else. However, be aware that the actual 'problem' is caused by a long
execution time of the inline. You will still have large OnsetDelay values
for the fixation of about 5 seconds.  As I indicated before, you can solve
this by setting the duration of the slider to the full 5 seconds and
execute the inline during this period by setting the pre-release also to 5
seconds. This will 'reserve' about 5 seconds of execution time for the
inline without any timing issues. (But again, if the response window has a
variabe duration, you should use the custom timing mode.)

The atached two EP (version 1) scripts will demonstrate this for event and
cumulative mode. The scripts can also be loaded in EP version 2. A typical
debug output is as follows:

Slide1.OnsetTime: 6374
Start inline time : 6375
current inline time : 7376
current inline time : 8377
current inline time : 9377
current inline time : 10378
Exit inline time : 10380
Fixation.OnsetTime: 11373
Fixation.OnsetDelay: -1
Fixation.OffsetTime: 12373

Best,
Paul

On 26 June 2014 04:37, gorgeous yayuan geng <gusunny1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, Paul.
>
> I have tried again and find that once I set the fixation mode to event the
> program went smoothly as I expected  and its duration I defined would not
> be shortened. I am a little confused about this part. Do you have an idea?
>
> My best,
>
> Sally
>
>
> 2014-06-25 22:50 GMT+08:00 sunnygu <gusunny1 at gmail.com>:
>
>> Hi, Paul.
>>
>> I just tried what you said but it didn't work as we expected. First of
>> all, I would like make you informed that the rating slide duration is set
>> to zero and I use inline scripts to control the whole presentation to be 5
>> seconds, each time there is a keyboard response, I would draw the rating
>> slice,making it seems its duration is 5 seconds.
>>
>> Then here is how I revised as you told me: first fixation prerelease set
>> to be the same as it's duration, since my eprime version didn't have this
>> option, I use the bracketed attribution. Second, I set the rating
>> prerelease to be zero or 5 seconds.
>> But all turned to be a failure in that the fixation time is shorten.
>>
>> So I don't know how to revise it.
>>
>> Hope you can give me some guidance.
>> Thanks a lot.
>> Best regards,
>>
>> Sally
>>
>> 发自我的 iPhone
>>
>> 在 2014年6月25日，下午9:09，Paul Groot <pfc.groot at gmail.com> 写道：
>>
>> Well, just to make sure we are talking about the same thing: I assumed
>> you have the following consecutive objects on the trial procedure:
>>
>> ...
>> RatingSlide
>> Inline (with long processing loop)
>> Fixation
>> ...
>>
>> You can keep the configuration of the Fixation object as required. I.e.,
>> just specify the duration using the bracketed attribute name ([time1]).
>> Pre-release can be set to default ('same as duration'). The rating Slide
>> should have duration of 5 seconds and pre-release set to 'same as
>> duration'. So, assuming that the allowed response time for the rating is 5
>> seconds, this should be OK and there is no need to use *CustomOnsetTime *and
>> cousins.
>>
>> The timing mode can be set to event or cumulative. I'm always a bit in
>> doubt if fMRI tasks are synchronized using cumulative timing. For event
>> related designs it's probably not required, unless you would like to make
>> sure that an EPI is made at a very specific point in the BOLD response. In
>> most cases it's sufficient to use the (relative) onset times of the edat
>> files in the fMRI analysis. For block designs you could consider
>> re-synchronization at the start of each block using the trigger signal of
>> the scanner. Although I prefer to use a small piece of script at the end of
>> a block instead, to make sure that any errors are compensated for. But
>> there is no harm done when the cumulative mode is used, as long as you make
>> sure to check the timed log results.
>>
>> Best,
>> Paul
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 25 June 2014 12:18, sunnygu <gusunny1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi,Paul. So you mean if I want the fixation after the 5s rating to be
>>> presented as long as I defined, I should set the duration before the rating
>>> and prerelease to same as duration.
>>> Besides, my rating slice time is fixed to 5s, so I suppose this would
>>> work.
>>> I just tried following: I originally set the fixation as accumulative
>>> mode which is required in fMRI and I changed this to event mode which make
>>> the fixation last as long as I want. How do you think about this?
>>> By the way, I usually add an attribution in list which tells the
>>> fixation duration, but now I defined the duration in fixation property file
>>> using[time1] which time1 is the property name in list. Are these two ways
>>> the same? Sometimes I find I can't trust the codes in eprime very much.
>>> Which would you suggest?
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot for your kind reply.
>>> My best,
>>> Sally
>>> 发自我的 iPhone
>>>
>>> 在 2014年6月25日，下午3:51，Paul Groot <pfc.groot at gmail.com> 写道：
>>>
>>> Hi Sally,
>>>
>>> You could solve this by setting the duration of the object before the
>>> inline to the required value (5 sec), and set pre-release to 'same as
>>> duration'. This will make sure that the inline is executed a.s.a.p. and
>>> that the next object is scheduled to start after 5 seconds. However, this
>>> would not work if the time taken by the inline is variable. In that case
>>> you might try using the CustomOnset/OffsetTime properties and set the
>>> timing mode to custom (of the object after the inline ).
>>>
>>>
>>> Paul
>>>
>>>
>>> On 25 June 2014 02:01, sunnygu <gusunny1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi,Paul, yes, I used a loop to make sure the rating lasted for 5s . And
>>>> I tried to change the following fixation mode to event then the time of the
>>>> fixation is ok then. But do you have any better idea about this situation?
>>>> Thanks for your nice reply.
>>>>
>>>> Sally
>>>>
>>>> 发自我的 iPhone
>>>>
>>>> 在 2014年6月25日，上午6:09，Paul Groot <pfc.groot at gmail.com> 写道：
>>>>
>>>> Hi Sally,
>>>>
>>>> Does your inline code use some kind of loop that takes a relative long
>>>> time to finish? In that case EPrime probably tries to compensate for the
>>>> 'lost' time when executing the next object.
>>>>
>>>> Paul
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 24 June 2014 16:20, sally <gusunny1 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear all,
>>>>>
>>>>> Recently I find there is a strange thing about eprime. I am engaged in
>>>>> an fMRI experiment. So there is a strict timing demand and I wrote several
>>>>> lines of codes to make it possible in the scanner that subjects use two
>>>>> keys to move the cursor in the screen to do rating from 1-9.
>>>>> The very obvious problem is that when I run the codes, some
>>>>> presentation before the 1-9 ratings has got something like time ceiling.
>>>>> the rating time is always fixed as I assigned in the codes,but sometimes,
>>>>> the fixation time after the rating is shorten to 0, or sometimes the
>>>>> picture showing time after the fixation also flash more quickly than I
>>>>> expected while another fixation after the picture is still shown as I
>>>>> hoped. It's  totally out of my mind. pictures didn't show up for the time I
>>>>> demand in the duration menu.
>>>>> I think this may have something to do wt my rating part. So I'd better
>>>>> to write out how I realize this part:
>>>>>
>>>>> Another guy give me this idea to make the rating 1-9 shown for 0s and
>>>>> afterwards every time I press the button I set up in the rating slide to
>>>>> left or right move the cursor, the eprime would catch the response and
>>>>> check which btton is pressed and make a decision whether the cursor move
>>>>> left or right and how long it would move. then after the axis is
>>>>> determined, I would draw the rating slide. and I have a cycle to control
>>>>> the time by datediff functon to check the start and the end of the cycle is
>>>>> about 5s apart.
>>>>>
>>>>> I hope I make myself clear.
>>>>>
>>>>> Any idea would be appreciated and hope someone can help me.
>>>>>
>>>>> My best,
>>>>>
>>>>> Sally
>>>>>
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