E-Prime LabDay 1

fMRI CourseTessa Abagis

University of MichiganAugust 2018

Welcome!

• Primary instructor: Tessa Abagis– Email: tabagis@umich.edu

• Other instructors– Colleen Frank: ccfrank@umich.edu– Lilian Cabrera: lilianec@umich.edu

Workshop Outline

• Day 1:– Introduction to E-Prime

• Functions• E-Studio GUI

– Programming a task• Build basic Stroop task

• Day 2:– Adapt the task for the scanner– Try out E-Recovery, E-Merge, E-DataAid, etc– “Office” hour(ish)

Introduction to E-Prime

• What does E-Prime allow you to do?– Design experiments (E-Studio)– Generate and run experiments (E-Run)– Edit and analyze data (E-Merge and E-DataAid)

• Note: E-Prime is not free, and requires a license

Designing Experiments• Typically, experiments are designed hierarchically– Experiment level: there is a specific sequence of

events that subjects will go through in the experiment• Ex. See instructions à do practice block à do experimental

block– Block level: within a block, there are variables that

influence each trial• Ex. different categories of stimuli; different correct

responses– Trial level: there is a specific sequence of events that

subjects will be doing on each trial• Ex. Fixation à see stimuli à respond to stimuli based on

task rules

E-Studio

• E-Prime is hierarchical• Types of E-Objects

1. Flow control (procedure, in-line, labels)

2. Sampling (lists)3. Stimulus presentation

(text, image, etc.)

E-Studio GUI

StructureToolbox

Properties

Workspace

E-Objects: Flow Control

Procedure

InLine

Label

E-Objects: Sampling

List

E-Objects: Stimulus Presentation

Slide

Text Display

Feedback Display

Image Display

Sound Out

Sound In

E-Run• When experiment starts, it will prompt you for:– Subject number– Session number– Other options

• Group number• Counterbalance number• Age, sex, handedness

– Will warn you if there is already a file with those specifications

• When experiment ends (successfully), it will generate a text file and a data file (e-dat file)

E-Run

• To abort mid-experiment– Ctrl-Alt-Shift– NOT Ctrl-Alt-Del

• If experiment ends prematurely (through aborting or crashing), only a text file will be generated– E-Recovery allows you to recover data from a text

file

Managing data

E-DataAid

• Analyze data with Tools à Analyze– Drag variables into columns and rows– Drag dependent measure(s) into Data box• Can change dependent measure result (mean, standard

deviation, etc.)– “Filter” to select restrictions to limit data– “Save Analysis” to use analysis again– Run

E-DataAid

• Tips– Program your task and set up analyses in a clear,

intuitive way• Pilot your task and “pilot” your analyses• Save and comment on your analyses

– Any edits to the data (changed data, deleted data, new variables) will be red• Deleted or absent cells = “NULL”

– Cannot delete rows or columns• Be mindful of a variable’s level when editing it