storing fill-in-the-blank responses as numeric in SPSS

[Cassiopeia]

Hi!

I’m having my participants complete ratings on a 0 to 100 scale, and I figured that the fill-in-the-blank item type would be best for this. However, when I tested it, my responses were always stored as 99 (the missing data value) in SPSS. I read some of the forum posts, then un-checked “Write as Text” and cleared my data folder. I still had the problem. Would you mind helping me? (Or suggesting another way of recording 0 to 100 ratings?)


(And another related question: is there a way to make a fill-in-the-blank screen NOT display “press ENTER when you are finished,” or whatever it says? I have a parameter of (d20) set, and I want to use that duration instead of having the participants press enter.



Thanks in advance!

[jarvis24]

Can you attach a copy of your que file? Regarding the message, see if this helps:

http://www.empirisoft.com/support/showthread.php?p=3339

[Cassiopeia]

Here it is. Thank you so much for your quick reply! I need to start the experiment ASAP, so I appreciate the fast response.

I have several fill-in-the-blank screens; all but one need to be recorded numerically in SPSS. (Those all begin "On a scale of 0 to 100..."; the exception does not begin that way.) The last time I tested it, one or two of those were recording numerically (and thus correctly): "rg2" was, plus maybe another one. "Write as Text" was checked for rg2, so I re-checked that box for the other screens. I've tried it both ways, and no dice.

By the way, the durations of the screens are set short for testing purposes...so you may need to enter your answers quickly if/when you test-run the experiment.

Oh--and I'll look into changing the "press enter" message, as you suggest, when I get into the office tomorrow.

Again, thanks a lot for your help!

[Cassiopeia]

Okay, I'm REALLY having trouble with this now. Now, none of my fill-in-the-blank or essay data is storing at all: it's all just a bunch of "99"s and "ok"s. Please help!

[Cassiopeia]

Nope, and I'm kind of panicking. Although I did find out that I could use the "thought listings" option, and that recorded the data for a while. (And you can change the size of the thought listing box using the h, w, t, and l parameters.)

Except now I'm having a new problem: the data is recorded when the subject presses "enter," but not if the duration for that screen runs out. This is a big problem for me, since my experiment requires that subjects write for two whole minutes, and I need to use the duration option rather than the "press enter" option....

[jarvis24]

What version of MediaLab are you using? i.e., v200x.x.x?

[Cassiopeia]

I just checked the one computer in the lab that doesn't have a participant on it right now, and it says 2006.2.40. That said, I checked the version of the computer I built the program on a few days ago, and I want to say it was a 2004 version...but I'm not sure.

I saw in some of the other posts that upgrading can fix some problems. I'm borrowing a faculty member's computers (he's not my advisor, and he's being gracious), so I wouldn't want to ask him to pay for an upgrade. Are there any upgrades from what I've got that might help, and are free?


Thanks!

[jarvis24]

The 2006.2.40 version should be fine unless it's a bug I don't know about. Now are you talking about the fill in the blanks issue still or are you referring now to the thought listing solution you switched to? If it's the latter, could you post a copy of that?