Can DirectRT stand alone for my project?

Hi All!

My project will have participants view a video (in .avi format) and hit the spacebar when they detect the offset of an emotional expression (DV: time it takes participants to hit the spacebar). I have successfully loaded the videos on to directRT and have run the videos also using directRT. I was wondering whether it would be useful to me to have the videos loaded onto medialab and then use directRT to measure response time? Or can directRT stand alone for my experiment?

Thank you for your help!
Kathy

Both MediaLab and DirectRT have the functionality to playback a video and detect when the response time is given; however DirectRT will yield a more accurate result.

It's good to hear that you were able to properly playback the video and record the response time with DirectRT.

To decide whether or not DirectRT can stand alone with your experiment, you may want to find if there are any requirements your experiment depends on that DirectRT may not be able to properly handle. Both MediaLab and DirectRT supplement each other to build a strong foundation between each other's weaknesses and strengths.

Is there more that your experiment may need? I would be glad to help break it all down with you.

Thanks for answering my question so quickly, newell!

All I really need for my project is for participants to view around 12 video clips and hit the spacebar when they first notice the offset of an expression. I also wanted to know...if I use the spacebar as my 'valid key' for recording reaction time, will the video end and continue on to the next one?

I also wanted to ask: is the video quality on medialab better than direct rt?

I have not been able to load any videos onto medialab...I feel like directrt is a bit more intuitive. Do you have any tips? Could I just load the excel direct rt experiment file into medialab?

Last question? Where do I find the data for my experiment on directrt? I haven't been able to find it.

Thank you!
Lafresca

Some answers here:

1. Pressing spacebar will lead DirectRT to the next trial.
2. Video quality is generally the same in DirectRT and MediaLab--both use the Windows MediaPlayer video engine.
3. Video are usually pretty easy to load into MediaLab--check out the section in the users guide on the Movie item type and also "BackVideos".
4. You can embed a DirectRT session within a MediaLab session by use of the DirectRT item type.
5. Data for DirectRT sessions should be located within a "data" folder located in the same place as your input (.csv) file.