WebExp2 Experimenter's Manual - School of Informatics - University ...

Note on Stimuli and Responses Stimuli and Responses will be referred to generically as Components, as
they are both components of your presentation. They are called components in the xml description language
too. Further stimulus and response types may be added quite straightforwardly if you know a little Java — see
the Developer’s Manual for more details.
Randomisation It is possible to randomise sections of your experiment, and to reorder them by hand.
Any reorderings are recorded in the results. WebExp2 currently supports only free randomisation and blocked
randomisation – we hope to add constrained randomisation in the near future. Guidance concerning creating
new randomisation types can be found in the Developer’s Manual.
Persistent values You can use responses you have already collected in later sections of the experiment,
allowing you for example to display reference responses in magnitude estimation experiments. This feature will
also provide for branching of the experimental sequence with a little further development.
Logging
Comprehensive logging for both client and server, recording potential and actual problems.
Server features The server is easy to use, providing automated administration and enforcing the separation
of each experimenter’s respective experiments and results.
• Directory-structured data management and storage
• Security for subject information and data
• Multiple experimenters can share the same server
Other features
There are various features to enhance the usefulness of experiments and to provide feedback.
• Simple questionnaire navigation — subjects can tab between fields, and press return in a field to advance
• Mandatory responses — ensure you get input before the participant can continue
• Progress indications — display the name of the experiment, and progress counts
• Informational methods for use by javascript
1.1.2 Desirable
This section describes features which would enhance the usefulness of WebExp2 and which we would like to
add in future stages of development. WebExp2 has been designed with some of these in mind and should be
extensible without too much complication. Further description of these potential features can be found in the
Developer’s Manual.
Server features The server will handle the randomisation and counter-balancing of experiments based on the
specification, thus automating the creation of multiple versions of an experiment. Improved data management
and storage. Perhaps also a GUI.
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