Inquisit 2.x Release Notes

Inquisit 2.0.61004.6 (February 13, 2008)

• The batch element now works Inquisit Web Edition.
• When you open a script in the editor, Inquisit now locks the file so that other programs can read the file but not modify it. This helps avoid multiple people making conflicting changes to a script at the same time.

Inquisit 2.0.61004 (October 13, 2006)

• Inquisit Web Edition now supports a new Microsoft technology called ClickOnce, which provides an alternative to ActiveX for running web experiments from Internet Explorer. ClickOnce applications are easier to activate than ActiveX controls, and they can be run by users who are not logged in as an Administrator on their machine. ClickOnce requires the .NET Framework 2.0, which is rapidly being adopted on Windows PCs and will be preinstalled with Windows Vista.
• Inquisit Web Edition now supports loading scripts from protected locations requiring user authentication and authorization. You can now publish your scripts to web servers that protect the script using Basic, Digest, or Windows Integrated Authentication. If anyone attempts to download the script, they will have to supply a valid userid and password. Similarly, when Inquisit loads a script and supporting files, it will prompt for a userid and password if needed as well.
• We've added two new random selection algorythms that prevent randomly selected items from being selected on consecutive trials. The command, "replacenorepeat" and "noreplacenorepeat", randomly select with and without replacement respectively while preventing repeats.
• We've added a command called transparentcolor that causes any pixels of that color to be rendered transparent (for example, transparent backgrounds). Transparency can be specified for any picture format supported by Inquisit (e.g., jpg, bmp, gif), even if the format does not natively support transparency.
• The video element now supports audio-only media files such as mp3.
• Bug fixes to the autocomplete feature in the editor, the batch element, and many more.

Inquisit 2.0.60616 (June 16, 2006)

• Inquisit 2.0 Web Edition now works with Mozilla-based web browsers such as Firefox 1 and Netscape 8 in addition to Internet Explorer.
• Inquisit can now present QuickTime Movies and Flash animations. Users can view and interact with QuickTime and Flash content during the course of an Inquisit experiment.
• We've added a "loop" attribute to the video element that allows you to repeatedly play video over and over until the trial ends.
• We've added a size attribute to visual stimuli that allows you to specify a bounding rectangle within which the stimuli should fit. This gives you precise control over the size in which text, video, pictures, and shapes are presented.
• There's a new "fontstyle" command for specifying fonts that is more powerful and has easier syntax than the old "font" command.  You can specify font size in points, pixels, percent of screen, inches, centimeters, and millimeters. You can also specify italic, bold, underline, and strikethrough.
• We've added a "recorddata" attribute to the trial and block elements that allows you to specify whether data should be recorded for that element. You can use this command to clean up your data files by not recording data for practice and filler trials.
• You can now protect your data files and scripts from unauthorized access using Inquisit's new password encryption feature so that only those who know the password can read them.
• There are several new dynamic properties that can be used for branching or for presenting in text stimuli and instructions. We've added "currentitemnumber" and "currentitem" properties to stimulus elements that return the index of the currently selected item and stimulus item itself itself, respectively. We've also added a "response" property to trial and block objects that returns the last response given by the participant for the specified element.
• We've added a new command to the Tools menu allowing you to determine the Scan code for any key on the keyboard.
• You can now create a user-defined stimulus item set based on participant responses to multiple types of trials as opposed to just one trial type.
• Inquisit now supports presenting Arabic and Hebrew text.
• We fixed a bug that caused the mouse cursor to disappear when participants typed in response on openended trials.
• We've overhauled joystick support so that Inquisit will work with any DirectInput compatible device.
• We've fixed some bugs that in some cases would cause crashes when using input devices plugged in through a parallel port.

Inquisit 2.0.60303 (March 3, 2006)

• We've revamped Inquisit help by adding a bunch of new topics, correcting outdated or erroneous content, and adding numerous examples demonstrating how to use the various aspects of the Inquisit language.
• Inquisit now supports measurement of voice key responses input using a standard microphone plugged into the PC. When the voicekey option is selected, Inquisit treats any sound sound coming through the microphone as a response, and avoids the potentially slow process of using speech recognition to identify the response.
• We've added two more random selection options, noreplacecorrect and noreplaceerror. Noreplacecorrect selects items without replacement if the response on the trial was correct, but replaces the item if the response was incorrect. Noreplaceerror selects items without replacement if the response on the trial was incorrect, but replaces the item if the response was correct. These options are useful for procedures in which a correct response is required for all stimulus items in a set, or for eliminating stimulus items from selection if they produce erroroneous reponses.
• There are two more variables that can be used to drive conditional branching. Selectedcount is a property of any stimulus element that returns the number of items that have been selected from the pool. Unselectedcount returns the number of items that remain in the selection pool.
• There is a new monkey element that enables you to configure the speed and accuracy with which Inquisit's test monkey performs.
• It is now possible to report performance variables in html instruction pages just as you can with regular text pages.
• Performance variables can also be embedded into text stimuli, making it possible to present detailed, customized feedback to participants from trial to trial.
• The Inquisit script parser is now more rigorous above validating input. In the past, the parser would overlook certain script errors, sometimes with unexpected results when the script was run. Most of these errors are now caught by the parser.
  
  WARNING: there is a small chance that your scripts may contain minor syntax errors that went undetected by previous versions of Inquisit, but are detected by this new version. If you have research in progress, you should test your scripts with the new version and fix any new errors before upgrading!

Inquisit 2.0.51026 (November 15, 2005)

• Inquisit Web Edition now has the ability to post data files to the millisecond.com web server where you can login and download them from our web site. This provides a simple, reliable, and secure method for transmitting data remotely over the internet. This is now the default for saving data with Inquisit Web Edition - to leverage this new data service, simply remove the file command from the <data> element in your script.
• The Millisecond web site now has a secure page from which you can download data files saved to our web server. To retrieve your data, simply browse to the Millisecond home page, click the "Account" menu, and select "Inquisit Web Data Files". From there you can download files individually or as a single aggregate file.
• Inquisit Web Edition can now send data to any web server using HTTP POST rather than HTTP PUT. The POST method circumvents the security and configuration issues with HTTP PUT, and is much better supported by web programming platforms such as PHP, ASP, ASPX, JSP, etc. In the vast majority of cases, it is best to save the data to the millisecond.com web server. However, in cases where it it necessary or desirable to use your own web server, this new feature makes it easier to do so.
• Fixed a bug that limited the number of data files that could be opened simultaneously in the Inquisit editor.
• Fixed a bug that prevented use of <htmlpage> in web experiments.
• We've fixed a bug that blocked the ability to open files in some circumstances in the Inquisit editor on Windows 2000.
• We've simplified the process for deploying Inquisit Web Edition experiments. In past versions, experimenters were instructed to copy the Inquist web control cab file to their own web server and modify the launch web page to load the control from there. We've eliminated these steps and now recommend that you launch page simply loads the control from the millisecond web server. Go to http://www.millisecond.com//web/launch.2.0.61004.5.aspx to see an example launch page.

Inquisit 2.0.50920 (Sept 21, 2005)

• Inquisit now supports parallel and serial ports with numbers higher than 2, for example COM3, COM12, LPT45, etc. You can also specify a custom address for parallel ports for compatibility with a wider range of drivers.
• Added a new rwmissstimulus command to the <response> element which allows you to present a stimulus after the response window duration ends. Previously, Inquisit would simply erase the window stimulus to indicate the end of the window interval.
• The <defaults> element now has a resetinterval command that allows you to specify exactly how frequently random number generators return items to the selection pool. This is useful, for example, if you wish to randomly select from a set of stimuli without replacement for the duration of the entire experiment.
• Lots of clean up work getting correctresponse and validresponse working properly with various kinds of trials and input devices.
• Fixed bugs that blocked the ability to email data to an email address if the address of the smtp server for the specified email account was different than than of the actual email address, or if the smtp server required a login.
• Fixed a bug that caused Inquisit to crash if it did not have sufficient privileges to open the data file for recording. This would occur, for example, if you are logged into Windows with a normal user account and tried to run one of the samples located in the Program Files folder.
• Changed the default font in the script editor to the more attractive MS Trebuchet.
• Added several new single-trial measures for use in branch commands, namely latency, correct, error, and inwindow. This enables branching based on performance on a single trial.
• Added the ability to record several new statistics into the data file, including errorstreak, correctstreak, sumlatency, and more.

Inquisit 2.0.50401 (April 1, 2005)

• We've added two new commands for doing conditional branching based on task progress and performance. The branch command allows you to specify which trial or block to run next based on the values or any of Inquisit's performance metrics. The stop  command allows you to interrupt a block when the values of performance metrics exceed a specified threshold. These commands enable a wide range of adaptive experimental procedures.
• The responsetrial command now supports specifying the next trial if 'anykey' is pressed. This is useful for defining a fallback responsetrial for cases when one of a particular set of responses are not given. This makes it possible, for example, to allow subjects to respond while a video is playing but continue to play the rest of the video before moving to the next trial.
• The responseinterrupt command has been improved to allow more control on whether media stimuli (sound, videos) should be interrupted or allowed to play to completion.
• In some cases, Inquisit crashed when running scripts from the object browser. This is now fixed.
• Inquisit's warning about requiring Administrator privileges to run has been removed. Inquisit runs fine with User privileges. Note that installing and registering Inquisit still requires Administrator rights. 
• We fixed the bug in likert trials that caused the scale line to be drawn over the buttons.
• If you forget to specify the file extension when saving a script, Inquisit now automatically adds it for you.

Inquisit 2.0.41230 (December 30, 2005)

• Inquisit 2.0 now includes the Inquisit 2.0 Web Edition ActiveX control and sample web page to assist in running Inquisit experiments over the Internet. These components enable you to run your scripts over the web on an unlimited number of client desktops. Note, however, that in order to save the data you must first purchase a web license.
• Inquisit no longer takes ownership of the *.dat file extension, so now if you associate this file extension with Excell or SPSS, Inquisit won't overwrite this association.

Inquisit 2.0.41125

• Enabled support for Windows task switching through Alt+TAB. The user can now safely switch from Inquisit to other programs and then back again. When the user returns to Inquisit, the currently executing trial or instruction page is repeated.
• Fixed problems in Inquisit's command line logic that caused the subject number to be ignored on machines that were registered but the evaluation period had expired.
• Fixed bugs in Inquisit's sound presentation that caused Inquisit to crash or sounds to not be played.
• Added two new performance metrics, "correctstreak" and "errorstreak", that can be used for reporting or as the criterion for advancing to the next block.
• Fixed the option in Inquisit's setup program to launch Inquisit when installation was complete, which previously didn't work on Windows 98 or ME.
• Fixed bugs that caused Inquisit's parallel port signalling to fail on machines with more than one parallel port (and potentially in other circumstances).
• Fixed crashing bugs in Inquisit's serial and parallel port monitoring tools.
• Fixed bugs in Inquisit's parser that caused errors when using the / trialdata command with string constants.
• Updated the Inquisit registration window so that it no longer says "Evaluation period expired" once the installation is registered.

Inquisit 2.0.41028

• Fixed a bug where if Inquisit was not registered, it would not record any data. With this fix, Inquisit will once again record data during the evaluation period. In addition, unregistered copies of Inquisit can now run experiments without recording data after the evaluation period has expired. Previously, Inquisit would not even run a script when the evaluation period was over.

Inquisit 2.0.41018

• Fixed parsing problems in multi-byte version that resulted in parse errors for scripts containing certain Asian characters.
• Added and enhanced support for /validresponse and /correctresponse commands in the <openended> trial type. Both stimulus sets and strings can now be specified as correct or valid responses.
• Fixed a bug that prevented use of the /responsetrial command in <openended> trials.
• Re-enabled ability to specify arbitrary strings in the for the <data> /columns command and the <trial> /trialdata command.
• Created a new installer program that fixes problems arising from installing Inquisit for a single user as opposed to all users.
• Fixed a bug that caused Inquisit to hang if /timeout was specified for <instruct>.
• Enhanced the <defaults> /endlock command so that you can present a custom message to subjects on the end lock screen.