Results Format Program Details

The Results Format Program (RFP) is used to select information and format of the table of results information PSYLAB produces. The system is designed so that various processing functions (e.g. MEAN and WAVE) produce up to 6 items of information (e.g. the MEAN function produces Mean (average of all data points per channel in a block), Standard Deviation, Maximum Value, Minimum Value etc). Instead of simply making the system print each of these six items into the results file, the system allows a simple user program (RFP) to determine which items will appear, by executing each line of the RFP, which contains a list of commands relating to the required items produced by the Process. The RFP is also capable of performing mathematical calculations and conditional jumps, allowing greater sophistication if needed.

To simplify use of the RFP, selection panels are provided allowing menu selection of required data, which then automatically writes the required RFP. This is intended to allow users to quickly get results from PSYLAB without necessarily understanding how the RFP system works, as it can seem unecessarily confusing to start with.

Selection panel: Select output for MEAN

The seven stages shown in italics in this panel should be followed by number, allowing selection of required information to form each field in a line of Results data. One such line will then be automatically produced for each block. 'Header' information is selected first. This information appears as the first set of fields on the Results line.

Stage 2. The '2 Add' button is clicked which generates the first lines in the 'Code Generated' panel. If an error is made, the clear button can be clicked and the stages re-commenced from stage 1.

Stage 3. A channel number must be selected. Move the vertical slider down until a number appears next to it. Only numbers of activated channels will appear. If the first activated channel is channel 1, the slider will have to be moved down and back again to register this channel (this is a minor bug in PSYLAB code).

Stage 4. Select the output information required for that particular channel. Information required for different channels may vary, for example an I.B.I. channel may require 'bad value count (timer channel), whereas other channel types would not need this. If the channel is the last or only channel that is activated for Processing, 'Terminate line after this channel' should also be selected.

Stage 5. The 5 Add button is clicked which adds the necessary code to the 'Code Generated' panel for the selected items.

Stage 6. If more than one channel is activated, go back to stage 3, select the next channel, etc. If only one channel is activated, or the stages have been repeated until all activated channels have been covered, move on to stage 7.

Stage 7. The code generated will be transferred to the Results Format Program panel. If there was already some existing program in there (e.g. which may have been generated using the panel which produces RFP for WAVE processing), the new code will be added to that in such a way that both sections of code will operate appropriately.

Selection panel: Set-up output for WAVE

The six stages shown in italics in this panel should be followed by number, allowing selection of required information to form fields in the Results table. Fields relating to each WAVE may be organised in a variety of formats. Stage one selects 'Header' information which appears at the beginning of every line in the results table. Stage 2 adds to the temporary text panel the RFP code required to produce this information. This code will finally be transferred to the RFP editor panel, where it runs* to produce results in this defined format.when processing each individual block of data. *The meaning of each piece of code is interpreted in sequence: keywords 'output subject' for example cause the subject number to be added to the results text.

Stage 3 selects particular information produced by the WAVE detection system (WDS). Any of the seven items (below) may be chosen, however generally either 'Individual' or 'Total' information will be chosen. Individual Wave information is generally used in an SR paradigm, when there is onespecific response of interest in each block, wheras Total information is generally used when quantification of a number of Waves in a given period is required. The two are generally mutually exclusive.

In the discussion below about formatting of this information in the results table, Wave?Ch? include all these selected numerical fields for each wave. E.g. if Channel number (1), Individual Wave Onset Level (10.53), Individual Wave Onset Latency (1.25), and Individual Wave Amplitude (0.33) were checked, (and the numbers in brackets were the values for the first wave in channel 1) Wave1Ch1 would add ' 1 10.53 1.25 0.33 ' to the results table. The actual field width (number of spaces between these numbers) can also be adjusted, but this requires manual editing of the RFP (see help on the 'OUTPUT' command).

Stage 4 selects how the chosen fields are added to the results area. There may be more than one channel selected for WAVE processing, and there may be more than one WAVE in each channel. The WDS will present the information for each successive WAVE in turn for each channel, and cause the RFP to run for each individual presentation, if 'Present data for All individual waves' is selected. Otherwise it will only run the RFP once for each channel.

In the following examples, 'Select Header Information' was checked to include 'Block number' and 'Subject number'. 'Select required Wave Information' was checked to include only 'Individual Wave Amplitude'. Thus, Wave1Ch1 refers to amplitude of the first wave in channel 1. If other items were checked in 'Select required Wave Information', e.g 'Channel number', 'Individual Wave onset level', 'Individual Wave Onset Latency', as well as 'Individual Wave Amplitude', then for each Wave1Ch1, four data fields would be added to the results line.

If 'Present data for Each individual wave' is checked, and there were four waves in channel 1 and three waves in channel 2

If format is selected to terminate line between blocks:

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave1Ch1   Wave2Ch1  Wave3Ch1  Wave4Ch1  Wave1Ch2  Wave2Ch2  Wave3Ch2

If format is selected to terminate line between channels:

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave1Ch1   Wave2Ch1  Wave3Ch1  Wave4Ch1

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave1Ch2   Wave2Ch2  Wave3Ch2

If format is selected to terminate line between Waves:

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave1Ch1

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave2Ch1

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave3Ch1

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave4Ch1

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave1Ch2  

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave2Ch2 

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave3Ch2

If 'Present data for First wave only' is checked, and there were four waves in channel 1 and three waves in channel 2

If format is selected to terminate line between blocks:

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave1Ch1   Wave1Ch2 

If format is selected to terminate line between channels:

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave1Ch1  

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave1Ch2 

If format is selected to terminate line between Waves:

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave1Ch1  

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave1Ch2  

If 'Present data for Only wave totals' is checked, and there were four waves in channel 1 and three waves in channel 2:

If format is selected to terminate line between blocks:

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave4Ch1   Wave3Ch2 

If format is selected to terminate line between channels:

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave4Ch1  

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave3Ch2 

If format is selected to terminate line between Waves:

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave4Ch1  

BlockNo  SubjectNo  Wave3Ch2  

Note that when 'Present data for Only wave totals' is selected, the only valid items that should be selected for each wave are:

Channel number

Total of all wave amplitudes

Total count of all waves

Channel number should be included if there is more than one channel selected for WAVE processing, otherwise it is redundant. 'Individual' WAVE information is only useful if 'All individual waves' or 'First wave only' is selected. If 'First wave only' is selected, 'Individual' WAVE information (Onset level, Onset latency, Wave amplitude) will relate to the first WAVE that is scored for each channel in each block. If 'All individual waves' is selected, the RFP will run multiple times, once for each WAVE in each channel. As the number of WAVES that will be detected is variable, this will result in non-standard field format for the Results table - the number of fields will change with the number of WAVES. For most purposes (except manual interpretation of results) this variable format is unusable, as spreadsheets cannot easily accommodate variable data fields.

 Stage 5 adds the code generated by the above selections to the temporary text area. At this stage, if an error has been made when using this panel, the clear button may be clicked and the stages repeated.

 Stage 6 copies the RFP code into the RFP program area. If a program already exists there, this new code will be added to it so that it will be used only when dealing with Waves produced from the relevant Review. Thus a complex RFP can be generated which will format data into the results from a number of different PSYLAB processing algorithms, each of which is represented by a different Review.

'Show zeros if no wave' is used to insure that even if no wave is detected, some information will be put into the results text when the RFP runs. If this was not checked, and no wave was detected in a particular block, then the Wave information would be missing in the results text - the system would omit these fields. Therefore it is generally desirable tio check this option, so that absense of any waves is represented by relevant fields containing 0.