[open] Wondering if this is possible...

Kyle

So I am trying to create a sort of advanced questionnaire for my master's research work.

The beginning is a matter of semantic differential questions based on environmental stimuli, but the second part is a Mood Map (Valence-Arousal Chart) that I have created in .png form. I want to have essentially a grip overlay that is invisible so when I ask participants to mark on the map how they are feeling, it will save the coordinates from the grid in a basic x-y pair in my spreadsheet. Would something like this be possible?

Ideally, I am trying to do all of this on a tablet so I can gather real-time (comfortably) in the field.

Any insight, direction, answers, or help is greatly appreciated. Cheers!

Kyle

lvanderlinden

Hi Kyle,

For the first part of your experiment (the semantic questions) I recommend you'd use the questionnaire plug-in, which can be downloaded from here:

• http://osdoc.cogsci.nl/plug-ins/41-questionnaire-plugins

For the second part of your experiment (the mood map), you could present your .png file(s) by using the image tool of the sketchpad item. (If you're not sure how to do this, you can learn this from the step-by-step tutorial.)

Next, you could use the mouse_response item to record your participants' responses, which are indeed stored as (x,y) coordinates.

OpenSesame doesn't work on Android or iOS (yet), but you can use it on a Windows tablet or netbook. In this case you could consider using OpenSesame portable (with as an additional advantage that it has the questionnaire plug-in already installed). OpenSesame portable can be downloaded here:

• http://osdoc.cogsci.nl/getting-started/running-with-python-portable

If you have any specific questions about how to build your experiment in OpenSesame, please feel free to ask!

Cheers,

Lotje

Kyle

Lotje,

This was a huge help thank you.

I was able to get the essence of what I am trying to accomplish structured, and once I can get it to record correctly to a spreadsheet (currently my .csv file is coming up empty), this should be spot on.

The only thing that I would like to change is the way the rating_scale in the questionnaire tools is represented. The star shape is fine and even the color, although I'd like to tinker with a fade between two colors as the scale is moved from side to side, but if I could get into the source file and change the stars from filling serially to only filling the current selected star, then I'd be nearly done.

I can't seem to locate the script editing function though. I have the .py file of course in the questionnaire folder, but can't find the editor. Can it be done through OpenSesame or do I need to do it the old notepad route?

Again, thank you. So far so good.

Kyle

lvanderlinden

Hi Kyle,

I'm glad it helped!

With regard to the empty output file: I think you didn't place a logger item at the end of your trial sequence. Could that be it? (If you don't append a logger item OpenSesame does store all experimental variables but does not write them to the output file.)

With regard to changing the behavior of the starts in the rating_scale item: This is not something you can change either by using the 'Edit script'-button or Python inline code; you will have to edit the source code of the plug-in (which is indeed the .py file in the rating_scale folder).

And, as a final note, for programming I would recommend using a text editor such as gedit or medit (both are cross-platform and free) rather than notepad (which has no syntax highlighting etc.).

Please let us know if you have any further questions!

Lotje