Participants entering text

[aoifemcloughlin]

Hi all,

I was just wondering does anyone know if its possible to allow a
participant to enter their response in to E-Prime and actually be able
to see their own response in real time as the input it.

For example, in the study I am running the participant is presented
with a tone (for example 750ms). After hearing the tone they hit the
space bar and are brought to the next text display which asks them to
enter their estimation of the duration of the tone. I have E-prime set
to record their response, that is no problem. However they cannot
actually see what they are typing. My worry is that people who are not
so used to using the numbers keypad (part of my study will
specifically target people with very little knowledge of computers)
will make mistakes in their typing and so for the example above I will
recieve responses such as 7750, 50, 7500 etc. This will undoubted
cause me to end up with missing data.

My ideal would be that I could insert a text box into the text display
where they are asked to enter their estimation and that they could
actually see what they have typed and perhaps alter it before
beginning the next trial if they need to.

No matter how I try or where I search I can't seem to find a solution
to this.

Any suggestion?

Aoife

[David McFarlane]

Aoif,

Standard reminder: 1) I do not work for PST. 2) PST's trained staff
really does like to take 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. So don't be shy there. 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 ...

This is a job for EchoClient. I don't know how you learn about this, I
don't even remember how I stumbled upon this. OK, I just checked, you
can get some info about EchoClient in Chapter 1 of the Reference Guide
that came with E-Prime, in the section on Advanced Device Properties.
But you still have to play with this yourself to make any sense of it.

Anyway, open the properties pages of any stimulus object, go to the
Duration/Input tab, and make sure you have added some input mask. Then
click on the Advanced... button. On the General tab, increase the Max
Count (and optionally add a Termination Response). Then go to the Echo
tab. Here is where the real fun begins. You need to add the Display as
an Echo Client (note you could also echo responses to the lamps of a
SRBox). You may also edit its properties. Play around and explore.

Just this past weekend I happened to explore Echo Client and made a
little demo program to show off what it could do (especially when
combined with Extended Input and multiple input masks). I could send
that to you separately when I get back to campus Thu afternoon, but be
warned it comes with no documentation. For all I know PST might also
have an example EchoClient program downloadable from their web site.

-- 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)

[Joe]

Hi,

I actually used the same concept for a program I wrote a few weeks
ago. The short answer is yes, it is possible to take input from a
user while producing an echo so that they may see what they typed.

I apologize if some of this is just repeating what you already know
but this is what I did for a similar task:

Under the text display slide's properties, select the "advanced..."
button (still using keyboard for input device). Under the advanced
properties, you can choose the max count (I chose a high number that I
knew would never be reached. For example if all you are looking for
is an integer response, 100 would be more than enough. That allows
you to input more than one keystroke. Then you can select a
termination response (a keystroke that would indicate that the subject
is done with their task, i.e. {ESC}, {SPACE}, etc...). Under the
Collection Tab you can choose what keystrokes to allow as input.
Finally, the part you're probably most interested in is the Echo Tab.
Under this tab, select add-->Display. Then you can edit where this
display echo will be on the screen, how big it is, and what font to
use. Hope this helps!

Joe Fetterhoff

[aoifemcloughlin]

Hi again,

Thanks so much to both of ye for the quick replies! That worked
perfectly. However there is still one slight problem, the inputted
text comes up however if the participant makes a mistake and would
like to void their response and enter a different one they cannot
simply backspace to remove what they have already typed. I guess I
could have them hit the * button to indicate a mistake and then enter
their actual estimation, this would be perfectly adequate for me but
just from a curiousity point of view were either of ye able to have
participants edit their text input. I guess it stems from the fact
that it is an "echo" of what they're typing rather than a text input
of what they have typed.

No worries if this can't be done.

And thanks a million again!

> > Aoife- Hide quoted text -
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> - Show quoted text -

[aoifemcloughlin]

Ok, after about another nanosecond of looking at the properties I
figured out how to fix this myself! The process backspace options, it
really couldn't have been plainer for me!!! I think that just means it
is nearly time for my to pack up out of this lab for the day, e-prime
is playing tricks on me!

Thanks again for the help!

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[David McFarlane]

Aoif,

First, I just checked in to add this: As you can imagine, you can find
more discussions of this by using the search term "echo" at either the
PST Forum or the E-Prime Google Group. If you do that you will come
upon this thread, http://support.pstnet.com/forum/Topic813-5-1.aspx ,
where Matt Lenhart discusses this and provides the StringInput.es
example from the PST downoad site.

Now, on to your latest question... Go back to the Advanced... button of
your input mask, and this time go to the Collection tab and make sure
that Process Backspace is set to Yes (which should have been the
default). Oh, and make sure that your input mask allows the {BACKSPACE}
character (e.g., Allowable = {ANY}). Then your subjects can at least
erase one character at a time, even if the arrow and delete keys do
nothing. And while you are at it, might as well Edit the Echo Display
properties to Show Position Marker.

Like I said before, you really just have to poke around and explore all
this. Best to drop your main project for awhile and just make a little
tiny demo program just to explore using the Echo Client, then apply what
you learn there back in your main project.

-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder