[open] Response time in survey:how to record-Help

Kushi

I need help in knowing how to record response time for survey in open sesame. I mean suppose I present 5 positive & 5 negative words through survey form and asked participants to tick like or dislike...so together with their response I wish to see their response time too, then how should I do it in open sesame.
Please advice.

Josh

Hi Kushi,

You may want to consider using a sketchpad item instead of a form. You could make the sketchpad such that you have your positive or negative word, and below you display 'like' and 'dislike' on the left and right side respectively. Right after the sketchpad item, you place a keyboard_response item, and indicate the two buttons with which you want participants to answer. The keyboard item automatically gives out a variable named response_time, so you wouldn't have to do anything else.

If for some reason you really want to use the form, then you would have to place an inline_script item before the form, and create the variable start_time = self.time(). Right after the form you have to place another inline_script and create the variable response_time = self.time() - start_time. The only problem here is that there is more noise in your response times because the time it takes for the computer to display the form is included.. So again, I would use a sketchpad item.

One last thing: if you want the log_item to automatically log the response time, if you created response_time manually in an inline_script, you have to write "exp.response_time" instead of "response_time" when you create it.

Good luck!

Cheers

Josh

Kushi

Thank you so much Josh for your advice:)
I have one more query, in another of my experimental design I have put 4 images on the sketchpad and participants through mouse click have to tick one. But the problem is every time the screen with images come and cursor is not visible. To make it visible we have to click space bar. Since we have to record response time, this is creating unnecessary time and effort from participant side. can you please provide solution for this problem too?

sebastiaan

Hi Kushi,

It sounds like the duration of the sketchpad is set to 'keypress'. This means that the participant has to press a key to advance to the next item, in your case a mouse_response item. If you set the duration to '0', the problem should go away. This is also described in step 6 of the beginner tutorial:

• http://osdoc.cogsci.nl/tutorials/step-by-step-tutorial/

Does that solve your problem?

Cheers,
Sebastiaan