How to measure the total time of experiment

[Da_Ri_]

I’m trying to measure a total time that a participant spends on my experiment. I was considering using the following method:

1. Start timer for measuring a total time

newVar("ExperimentTime")
   .set( v => Date.now() )

2. Stop timer for measuring a total time
getVar("ExperimentTime").set( v => Date.now() - v)

3. Make a row called ExperimentTime which contains the total time of the experiment
.log("ExperimentTime", getVar("ExperimentTime"))

I thought that this would work just like measuring RT, but I’m not sure where I should put these into my code. For instance, if I use a following example code for a self-paced reading experiment, where should I put the codes?

PennController.ResetPrefix(null); // Shorten command names (keep this line here))

// DebugOff()   // Uncomment this line only when you are 100% done designing your experiment

// First show instructions, then experiment trials, send results and show end screen
Sequence("instructions", "experiment", SendResults(), "end")

// This is run at the beginning of each trial
Header(
    // Declare a global Var element "ID" in which we will store the participant's ID
    newVar("ID").global()    
)
.log( "id" , getVar("ID") ) // Add the ID to all trials' results lines

// Instructions
newTrial("instructions",
     // Automatically print all Text elements, centered
    defaultText.center().print()
    ,
    newText("Welcome!")
    ,
    newText("In this task, you will have to read few sentences.")
    ,
    newText("Are you ready?")
    ,
    newText("Please type in your ID below and then click on the Start button to start the experiment.")
    ,
    newTextInput("inputID", "")
        .center()
        .css("margin","1em")    // Add a 1em margin around this element
        .print()
    ,
    newButton("Start")
        .center()
        .print()
        // Only validate a click on Start when inputID has been filled
        .wait( getTextInput("inputID").testNot.text("") )
    ,
    // Store the text from inputID into the Var element
    getVar("ID").set( getTextInput("inputID") )
)

// First experiment trial
newTrial( "experiment",
    newText("instructions", "Click on the button below to start reading. Click spacebar to proceed to the next word.")
        .print()
    ,
    newButton("Start reading")
        .print()
        .wait()
        .remove()
    ,
    getText("instructions")
        .remove()
    ,
    // We use the native-Ibex "DashedSentence" controller
    // Documentation at:   https://github.com/addrummond/ibex/blob/master/docs/manual.md#dashedsentence
    newController("DashedSentence", {s : "You have just begun reading the sentence you have just finished reading."})
        .print()
        .log()      // Make sure to log the participant's progress
        .wait()
        .remove()
    ,
    newButton("Next sentence please!")
        .print()
        .wait()
)

// Second, more concise experiment trial
newTrial( "experiment",
    newController("DashedSentence", {s : "Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana."})
        .print()
        .log()
        .wait()
        .remove()
    ,
    newButton("I'm done")
        .print()
        .wait()
)

// Final screen
newTrial("end",
    newText("Thank you for your participation!")
        .center()
        .print()
    ,
    // This link a placeholder: replace it with a URL provided by your participant-pooling platform
    newText("<p><a href='https://www.pcibex.net/' target='_blank' rel="noopener noreferrer">Click here to validate your submission</a></p>")
        .center()
        .print()
    ,
    // Trick: stay on this trial forever (until tab is closed)
    newButton().wait()
)
.setOption("countsForProgressBar",false)

Or if someone has a better idea to measure a total time, I would really appreciate if you can teach me how to do it. Thank you so much.

• This topic was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Da_Ri_.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Da_Ri_.

[Jeremy]

Hi,

Since your experiment starts with a PennController trial and ends with one too, and since PennController trials automatically add a line to the results file for the start of the trial and a line for the end of the trial too, simply subtract the EventTime of the first “_Start_” event of the run from the EventTime of the last “_End_” event of the run. No need to use any Var element

Jeremy

[Da_Ri_]

Thank you so much for your answer! Now I understand it 🙂

[Author]

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