Tuesday 1 June 2010

E-prime, Voice Key and the Serial Response Box



Northern Teutoburg Forest, Bielefeld












Hello, today I'd like to share with you the solution to a problem I had in programming a simple naming task in E-prime. The experiment requires participants to name a list of common objects while reaction times are recorded. In order to collect accurate to millisecond reaction times you need to connect a microphone to the PC on which Eprime has been installed. To do so, you need to connect the mic to the Serial Response Box that, in turns, is connected to the PC. Once you have done that, the mic can be used a voice key.

This makes collecting naming latencies quite easy, if it works. In fact, at least in my case, the microphone did not detect any signal. This problem was connected to the fact that it is not possible to change the sensitivity of the microphone from the SRB but only using some E-script. The bad news is that this information is not on the manual. The good side is that the e-scritp you need to fix the problem is this:

Debug.Print SRBox.VoiceKeyTripLevel
SRBox.VoiceKeyTripLevel = 0

These two E-basic lines basically set the SRB voice key at the default level.
Cheers
Michele

13 comments:

  1. it doesn't work for me... I am not sure what's wrong... But I really need it~

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  2. @ Dora; so it must be something else.
    If you haven't solved it yet, please contact me by email (http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/mburigo/Site/Home.html)
    I will be happy to help
    Cheers
    M.

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  3. Hi Michelle, Can you do this without a response box? Shouldn't it be feasible to just connect the mic to the soundcard and then get input from that? The RTs should be automatically recorded.

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  4. Hi St. Sixtus,

    Michelle = French female name
    Michele = Italian male name ;-)
    To my knowledge it's not possible to use a soundcard as a voice trigger in Eprime. You need a response box (e.g. Cedrus).
    Cheers
    M.

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  5. It is better to use E-Prime 2 and record all responses. These can then be analysed with an offline voicekey program, which works much better.

    Maarten

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    Replies
    1. hey marten,
      can you describe in detail the procedure as you suggested. I want to have the naming latencies; as well as need to check for their accuracy. so i was wondering whether i can simultaneously do that using eprime 2 and a voice key!

      Delete
  6. My microphone is detecting, but I would like it so be more sensitive.....can I adjust the sensitivity using the same script? if so how should I do this? and also where does this bit of script go?

    (sorry, I am only just starting to use eprime)

    thank you

    Isobel

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, yes you can use the script to adjust the sensitivity by changing the Trip level.
      For example;

      Debug.Print SRBox.VoiceKeyTripLevel
      SRBox.VoiceKeyTripLevel = 5

      This bit of code should be inserted at the beginning of the experimental list via an E-script slide.
      Best
      M.

      Delete
  7. You just saved my experiment - thank you!!

    Kimberly

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  8. Hi, triplevel=0 should be the most sensitive as far as I know.

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  9. my SR response box has a potentiometer on the back - you need a small screwdriver to turn it and it adjust the sensitivity of the mic. That's all i've ever needed to do though its useful to know about the above for reference.
    thanks

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  10. My microphone and SRbox is trigger the response RT but not recording the actual response. Any suggestions for recording the actual responses using E-prime 2? I'm using an n-back task.

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  11. Vuoi sapere come che il software di chiamata funziona? Ti spiegheremo cos'è il software per call center, cos'è il call center e come puoi avviare una società di telemarketing/teleselling e così via. Vai su Telemarketing_gestionale per conoscere tutto questo.

    #gestionale_telemarketing
    #gestionale_teleselling

    ReplyDelete