Can Excel Be Used For A Psychological Experiment?

[Rufius]

I am designing an experiment where objects are compared, and rated according to how similar or dissimilar they are. As an Excel lover, I am trying very hard to use Excel to conduct the experiment, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it on my own...

Everything will make more sense if you check out the attached picture first...

Basically, the users' experience will look something like this:
-subjects will see two objects pictured on the screen, side by side
-below the pictures they will see a bar where they will click according to how similar/dissimilar they find the objects pictured
-After they click the picture, they will be shown a new set of pictures (at this point, loop back to the first bullet)

The attached picture explains more details, but the three main things I am having trouble with are as follows:
1.Getting excel to open a JPG based on a direct path (like "C:\Experiment\Data\Pictures\1A.jpg"), and display that picture in a particular place. I have come across some other techniques where you link a picture to a cell somewhere else that already has some pictures in it. This won't work since the number of pictures is so large... I need excel to actually open a file and display it on the screen, and then close it and open a new one after the user has given a response. At the least, I have the part about generating the path to the actual file figured out.

2.figuring out how to record a value from 00-99 after the user clicks on a bar (where 00 is the left most portion and 99 is the right most portion, and clicking in the middle will give a result of 50, for instance). This value should get attached onto the end of a 7-digit code which will encode more details like the ID number of the client who took it, what objects were involved (this is explained more in the attached picture)

3.After I actually get through those first things, I will need Excel to cycle through to the next picture based on a pre-generated list of 3-digit codes (this is explained more in the attached picture)

I am completely sure that a simple dose of XHTML/PHP would whip this problem into shape in an instant - the problem being I am only really experienced in using Excel and Visual Basic, and have no idea how to go about this otherwise.

Any suggestions at all - even just "here's how you would do that with HTML" or "here's some other place you could ask using some other means" would be very very helpful!
It's for science!

thanks,
Rufius

 

[hiker95]

Rufius,

Your attempt to attach a graphic/picture failed.


What version of Excel are you using?

Can you post the raw data worksheet, and, post the worksheet results (manually formatted by you) that you are looking for?

To post your data, you can download and install one of the following two programs:
Excel Jeanie
MrExcel HTML Maker

Or, when using Internet Explorer, just put borders around your data in Excel and copy those cells into your post.


If you are not able to give us screenshots:
You can upload your workbook to Box Net,

sensitive data scrubbed/removed/changed

mark the workbook for sharing
and provide us with a link to your workbook.



There is a lot of information out there if you search the web for Excel Psychological Experiment.

See:

How to Conduct a Psychology Experiment
Psychology Experiments and Data Collection

 

[Rufius]

I am using Excel 2010.

here is a link to the workbook I have as of this moment (with the pictures being in the "Image Warehouse")
https://www.box.com/s/cqadyadi2ftvturslip7

and here is a link to the original picture/description:
https://www.box.com/s/unxlc94e5z8rjihf5bu6

does this help for anyone?

 

[hiker95]

Rufius,

Thanks for the picture/graphic. But, it is too small to read and understand what is going on.

Thanks for the workbook.

On worksheet Tester, when I click on the button for:

1. Full Screen

I get:
Cannot run the macro 'CodeGenerator.xksm!FullScreen'. The macro may not be available in this workbook or all macros may be disabled.

2. Not

I get:
Cannot run the macro 'CodeGenerator.xksm!NotFullScreen'. The macro may not be available in this workbook or all macros may be disabled.



Click on the Reply to Thread button, and just put the word BUMP in the post. Then, click on the Post Quick Reply button, and someone else will assist you.