I see several issues here:
(1) IAT template and matching SPSS syntax
I created the IAT by modifying the
insects/flowers one. [...] When I try to run the SPSS syntax, an error
message appears.
The first thing to clarify is which IAT template exactly you used.
There are a bunch of them around:
- Tony
Greenwald's (somewhat outdated) template available from http://faculty.washington.edu/agg/iat_materials.htm
along with a matching SPSS
syntax file.
- The
Inquisit 3 templates available from http://www.millisecond.com/download/samples/v3/IAT/default.aspx
along with SPSS command syntax.
- The
older Inquisit 2 IAT templates available from http://www.millisecond.com/download/samples/v2/default.aspx
along with a variety of SPSS syntax files for the different templates.
Note that the SPSS files are specifically tailored to their
respective IAT template, they cannot be used interchangeably (at least
not straight out of the box). Also, the various templates differ
considerably in terms of the data they put out (e.g. the Inquisit 3
templates automatically compute the D score and write it to the data
file whereas the others do not).
Also, if you've made any
substantial changes to the procedure as implemented by the original
template (e.g. reduced the number of blocks), there's a fair chance that
the respective SPSS syntax file won't work anymore / would have to be
adapted for the modified procedure.
BTW, here's an excellent
IAT / D score / Inquisit overview written by Sean: http://www.millisecond.com/forums/Topic3444.aspx.
(2) Dealing with SPSS error messages
When I try to run the SPSS syntax, an error
message appears.
While I'm personally not a huge fan of the software, the error
messages spit out by SPSS are usually pretty informative. So you might
want to take a closer look at said error message(s), look up additional
information on the reported errors in the SPSS documentation or on the
internet and (if all of this doesn't help) post the specific error
messages here or in one of the many SPSS related forums (official SPSS
support or user-driven places like http://www.spssforum.com).
Regarding (1) and (2), this thread might offer some hints: http://www.millisecond.com/community/forums/t/1034.aspx.
(3) Dealing with reaction time data / Aggregating reaction time
data
(I also haven't figured out yet how to get data
from one participant onto one line in SPSS- my data is over several
columns and rows at the moment, and I'm only looking at data from one
participant at a time).
Ron Dotsch has an excellent, easy to follow tutorial available right
here (and it even uses IAT data as an example): http://web.me.com/rdotsch/tutorials/inquisit2spss/index.html.
As a general introduction to preparing RT data for analysis in SPSS I
would like to recommend working through the tutorial article by Lacroix
& Giguère
(2006) which is available here along with a sample data set: http://www.tqmp.org/doc/vol2-1/vol2-1.htm.
(4) Computery talk
Well, if you're doing computery research you'll have to cope with at
least some computery talk...;-) Can't have one without the other -- that
would be like wanting to eat a tasty steak without (someone) having to
kill a cow first. No wonder I'm on a vegetarian diet...
Just my 0.02$. Thanks for reading and good luck!
Best wishes from a fellow Inquisit user,
~Dave