EXPERIMENT DESIGN: Stage 8: Running the Experiment [37335]

Once experiment development is completed and you have thoroughly tested the experiment and examined the data file to determine that the necessary information is logging appropriately, data collection is ready to begin. With a participant-ready experiment, E-Studio is no longer needed to launch the E-Run application.

Stage 8, Step 1: Running Participants
During experiment development, the E-Basic Script (.ebs3) file is generated from within E-Studio via the Generate button, and then launched from within E-Studio by selecting the Run button. Once the experiment development and testing is complete, however, the E-Basic script file does not change and therefore does not need to be re-generated. There are three options for running a generated E-Basic Script file:

• Either double- click on the .ebs3 file name or right—click on the .ebs3 file name and select “Run ”. The familiar E-Run prompt for startup information appears, unless the Experiment Object properties are configured to assign default values to all startup variables.
• From the Start menu, choose E-Prime 3.0 to display the E-Prime 3.0 menu, and then select E-Run.

To run a pregenerated .ebs3 file in E-Run, enter the desired Experiment Name in the Experiment Name field. To display a list of recently run experiments, click within the Experiment Name field. To navigate to a different folder, click on the folder icon.
 

After the run is complete, the E-Run interface returns. You may run the same .ebs3 file again by clicking on the Run button, choose a different .ebs3 file to run by clicking on the folder icon and selecting a new .ebs3 file, or exit the R-Run application by clicking on the Close button. 

Stage 8, Step 2: Running on Multiple Machines
E-Prime must be installed locally in some manner on every machine on which its use is intended. However, the entire E-Prime system need not be installed on machines to be used only for data collection. The E-Prime installation includes a Subject Station installation that is approximately half the size of the full installation. To install the runtime application and only those components necessary for running pre-generated .ebs3 files, launch the E-Prime installation program. During installation, choose the Subject Station option. Repeat the Subject Station installation on all data collection machines. 
 

It is always a good idea to run an experiment to test that the installation was completed successfully prior to attempting to run actual participants. The BasicRT.ebs3 file is included with the Subject Station installation for this purpose. Refer to the previous section for information concerning running an .ebs3 file from E-Run. To run any other .ebs3 file using a Subject Station machine, simply copy the .ebs3 file (and any other files required by the experiment) to that machine, load the experiment into E-Run, and click the Run button.

E-Prime 3.0 collects only single participant data files, which include the .edat3 extension. Thus, for analysis, the single participant data files must be merged into a master file. The E-Merge application is used for this purpose. If data is being collected on multiple machines, the .edat3 files must be copied or moved to a common location for merging, unless the data collection machines are networked.

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