Frequently Asked Questions
Quick
Is my data counted if I'm not signed in?
Yes, your data is counted. Signing in simply allows you to see your results any time in the future and allows the experimenter to gather simple demographic data, such as birth year, gender, ethnicity, and country. If you participate without an account, your demographic data will not be saved and you will not be able to see your results at a later date.
If I stop midway through an experiment, then do I mess up the experimenter's data?
You can stop at any time for any reason, but your data from the entirety of your participation is not saved until you see this screen, which comes after the last frame of the experiment. Be sure to check with the experimenter if you stop part way through and want to start at the beginning again — in some experiments this is a problem.
Is my data from an experiment I participated in accessible to everyone?
No, your data file is only accessible to you and the person or group who created the experiment.
Is there any way to make the experiment full-screen?
No, not at this time, but it will be in the future version of TELLab.
Is it possible to do sound stimuli?
No, not at this time, but it may be in the future version of TELLab.
Is the "groups" function still supported [in TELLab 1]?
Yes. If a group you just created is not showing, you can simply reload the page. Then, you can open the group and assign an experiment to it.
Advanced
What do I do if my keys stop functioning during the experiment?
The keys can be reactivated any time by clicking on the info bar right below the frame.
The keys deactivate when the window is not full-screen or when the participant clicks away from the frame at any point in the experiment. As a participant, make sure your window is full-screen and that you do not click outside of the frame at any point in the experiment. As a researcher, encourage participants (in text frames preceding the experiment) to stay full-screen and to avoid clicking outside of the experiment frame. The keys will remain functioning and your results will not be affected as long as participants adhere to these steps.
Why can’t I move a frame in the editor where I want to?
The best method to resolve this issue is to chunk your frames into blocks. Blocks are like drop-down menus and the bullet points are individual frames. Chunking your frames into blocks and closing the drop-down will allow you to navigate the frame editor much more smoothly.
Why can’t I scroll through the text in a frame in the experiment editor?
At this time, only individuals participating in the experiment have access to a scrollbar when the text exceeds the length of the frame. However, it is still possible to navigate through a long text in the experiment editor by clicking somewhere in the text and using the up and down arrow keys to navigate through the text. We encourage experiment designers to avoid exceeding the text limit in the first place.
When randomizing a set of frames inside of a block, the same frame sometimes appears consecutively during the experiment. Is there an option to prevent this?
At this time, there is no such option. However, we encourage experiment designers to warn participants of this possibility. For example, for the Stroop test, the experiment designer can state, “the same word and color may appear consecutively, so if it looks like the slide hasn't changed, press the corresponding key again”. More advanced users can create a “master block” that contains individual blocks, which then contain a trial frame paired with an empty frame that would appear for a set amount of time (e.g., 500 ms). Thus, the empty frame would serve as an interstimulus interval and the experiment designer could maintain randomness by enabling the randomization option for the master block.
How do I ensure that data for each participant is collected and saved?
An experiment is considered complete when a participant sees the frame stating, “Great, you are all done!” This message is shown after the last frame of your experiment. As the experiment designer, you must enable a key to allow the transition between your last frame and the frame with the message. Additionally, let your participants know (ideally in the frames preceding the last frame of your experiment) to press the key you have assigned for the last frame.
Why is some data missing for users who participated in an experiment that was changed after it was published?
Data appears "missing" when a published experiment is edited and new frames are added or removed. It is possible to look at the data from frames that were added after the experiment was published.
One option is to download the data in Long format. You can see any changes that were made in Long format because there will be different amounts (or types) of data for certain participants. Another option is to download the results from when the update was made to the current date, in either format. Note that you will run into the same issue if the data in the old version of the experiment were collected on the same day the update was made, because both the old and new data will interfere with each other. So...
The best option is to avoid this issue in the first place. If you'd like to edit an experiment, you should make edits to a copy of that experiment, and then publish it to get the new data. In a real experiment, you wouldn't expose the participants in one group to more, less, or different stimuli, so it wouldn't make sense to do that here either.
How do I resize an image to 640x480 to use in my experiment?
TELLab experiments require an aspect ratio of 640 pixels by 480 pixels. You can resize an image through the following steps in Windows: Go to the image in your folder > right click > click on 'Edit' > press 'Ctrl + W' > click on the 'Pixels' bubble > un-check 'Maintain aspect ratio' > enter '640' for 'Horizontal' and '480' for 'Vertical'. Save your image and it's good to go.
