Inquisit Data Output

Inquisit saves test results in a non-proprietary tab-delimited text format that can be easily imported into other data processing applications such as Excel, SPSS, etc. Data files are encoded as UTF-8, and can thus handle any character set.

Most tests in the Millisecond Library are configured to output both raw and a summary data files. The summary data file contains a single line of summary data for the session. This includes the date and time of the session, participant identifier, whether the test was completed, and custom metrics summarizing their performance on the measure. The raw data file contains a complete audit of the session (including every stimulus, response, response time, etc.) and can be used to compute custom metrics and deeper analyses not captured in the summary data file.

For help understanding what each field in a data file means, see the User Manual for the test, which can be found at the top of the test script as well as on the test page in the Millisecond Test Library.

Inquisit Lab

By default, Inquisit Lab saves data files in a directory called "data" located under the folder containing the test script. For example, if you copy a test to the directory "C:\MyExperiments\" on your computer, the data files will be saved to "C:\MyExperiments\data\". You can customize the data output folder by setting the file attribute on the data element. Network drives are supported.

Data from each session are saved as separate files. You can combine all of the summary or raw files across sessions using the Merge Data Files... command on Inquisit Lab's file menu. You can export the data as an Excel spreadsheet using the "Export to Excel..." command on the File menu.

These files can be freely copied, moved, or deleted using standard operating tools. Backing up your data is highly recommended and can be easily accomplished by adding data folders to the include list of your preferred backup software. Windows and Mac both provide mechanisms to encrypt your data folders to prevent access if the machine is lost or stolen. If your Inquisit Lab registration expires, or you uninstall Inquisit Lab, your test scripts and data files will remain on the computer.

Inquisit Web

Data files from each session on Inquisit Web are uploaded into your account on millisecond.com at the end of the session. You can login to https://myaccount.millisecond.com/data and download the combined files as Tab-delimited, CSV, or Excel format. You can also download the separate files packaged in a zip.

Customizing Data Output

The data recorded by a given test is fully customizable using the data element. The columns attribute on the data element allows you to specify any property or field defined within the test as a data field so it's value is recorded in the data file.

If no columns are specified, Inquisit outputs the following defaults:

  1. Current date (mmddyy)

  2. Experiment starting time (hh:mm)

  3. Group id

  4. Subject id

  5. Block number

  6. Trial number

  7. Trial code

  8. Pretrialpause (ms)

  9. Posttrialpause (ms)

  10. Scan code of the key with which the subject responded

  11. Whether or not the given response was the correct response

  12. Response latency (ms following the end of the last display frame).

  13. The next N variables are the item numbers of the stimuli shown on each trial recorded in the order in which those stimuli were presented. N is equal to the greatest number of stimuli presented on any single trial defined in the script. For trials on which less than N stimuli were presented, a value of 0 is recorded in the extra columns.