By Blues - 5/4/2014
Hi everyone,
I have a question regarding the import of Inquisit data files (.dat) into an SPSS file, for the purpose of research with an IAT Script. My main problem is that some of the variables won't appear in the SPSS file when I try to import everything.
First of all, I've been using the Picture IAT script from the Task Library with Inquisit 4 and have collected all my data in a .dat file. On the IAT Task Library Page on millisecond, there's a link at the bottom for an SPSS command syntax that processes all data and integrates them into a file. However, I ran into a couple of problems while using it.
At first I just let SPSS run the whole script (after inputting the name of my .dat file in the "GET TRANSLATE" line), which didn't yield me any usable results (several error messages about missing variable names and such). So instead I only ran the first command line and decided to go through the other command lines one by one in hope of finding the problem. So, I again input the name of my file in the "GET TRANSLATE" line and let SPSS run it, which gave me a first data sheet to look at. This had all my participants listed together with their data of the corresponding variables at the top:
"script.startdate", "script.starttime", "script.subjectid", "script.groupid", "expressions.da", "expressions.db", "expressions.d"
So at first I thought that everything was fine, and ran the second line in the syntax ("VALUE LABELS blocknum..."), however then it gave an error message, telling me it couldn't find the variable called "blocknum". So apparently, something was missing in this initially translated file. I checked my .dat file within Inquisit to take a proper look at the data, and indeed found that there was a lot more information in it than what was being displayed in SPSS, mainly the raw individual response latencies of the participants. A lot of variables were missing in my SPSS file, but being displayed in Inquisit: "blocknum", "trialnum", "response", "correct", "latency", "stimulusnumber1", "stimulusitem1" and so on. They were things that were displayed a bit farther down towards the bottom of the file, after all the individual d-scores (expressions.da, expressions.db, expressions.d) of the participants. These things were only partly visible in my SPSS file. So it seemed that a couple of variables went missing during the translation process. As a result, the SPSS syntax was missing material to work with and wouldn't run accordingly.
So now I'm wondering, is there any way to import all of the .dat data properly into an SPSS file without losing anything? Am I doing something wrong?
Normally I'd be happy with just having the d-scores (expression.d, etc.) in my SPSS file to work with, however it does prevent me from taking any deeper looks into the individual participants' work.
I hope that the situation within my files is somewhat understandable from this description. If necessary, I can of course try to upload/link it here to give you a better picture.
Thanks!
-Leo
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By Dave - 5/4/2014
> So now I'm wondering, is there any way to import all of the .dat data properly into an SPSS file without losing anything? Am I doing something wrong? Inquisit data files are nothing more than simple, tab-delimited text files. They can be imported to SPSS via File -> Read Text Data...
Your problems appear to be about properly using SPSS and SPSS syntax. I would thus recommend working through the respective support resources provided by IBM/SPSS or 3rd party tutorials, books etc. (there is no shortage of those, many available online).
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By Dave - 5/4/2014
BTW, this
"So, I again input the name of my file in the "GET TRANSLATE" line and let SPSS run it, which gave me a first data sheet to look at. This had all my participants listed together with their data of the corresponding variables at the top:
"script.startdate", "script.starttime", "script.subjectid", "script.groupid", "expressions.da", "expressions.db", "expressions.d""
indicates that you are *not reading* in the raw data file, but the *summary data*. Run your IAT script and you'll notice that it produces *two* output files. (1) A data file containing the raw, trial-by-trial data (many lines), and (2) another one containing only a single line containing the final d scores. If you want to inspect your raw data in SPSS or any other stats / data processing package, you'll need to work with (1).
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By Blues - 5/4/2014
Thanks a lot for your help!
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