Hello all,
Does anyone know how to have a participant listen to an audio file in Inquisit WHILE they are browsing the internet and having their mouse-movements recorded? Essentially, I want the audio files to be the main target stimuli, with occasional internet browsing as the distractor activity/stimuli.
Can Inquisit do something like this? Thank you any and all for your input!
No, I don't think this can be done* (nor would I know of any ready-made software solution that would allow this).
* As this would entail
- somehow embedding a full-featured web browser into Inquisit
- give Inquisit full access to the data gathered by that browser
- and several other issues.
Thanks for the rapid response Dave! My initial request seemed more ambitious than it was, I suspect. What I really want to know is if it's possible for Inquisit to be running and presenting audio stimuli, and simply collect mouse-movement data, while allowing the user to engage freely with the rest of the computer environment? Forget about the web-browser part. Can the participant engage with the computer outside the Inquisit environment while in the middle of an experiment?
Thank you so much for your thoughts on this!
James
No. In fact Inquisit's principal purpose is the exact opposite: block out the rest of the computer environment so Inquisit can deliver precise stimulus and response timing. Inquisit effectively tries to take over your computer for the time it's running.
Seems what you are looking for is more along the lines of a keylogger* / computer activity monitor (of which there are many, benign as well as malicious). Plus you'll want to do some OS-level scripting for the background audio (not a huge problem).
* I hear NSA has some nice ones. Perhaps they'll share? :)
Ha - yes I'll ask my NSA rep about those next he/she/it calls..
Thanks for the response though - I understand it's an uncommon request to penetrate the software wall that was put up to get a precise experimental environment. File this away under 'Naturalistic stimuli' I suppose - we're interested in using simplified web-browsing (vs. no web-browsing) as a distractor condition during an attention task. We still want an experimental stimulus-delivery environment, but with the ability to allow the participant to engage in natural computer behavior (if I can use such a phrase). If others start asking for it too, then there might be justification for designing such a feature. Thanks again,