response time or reaction time data in miliseconds

[Guest]

Hi everyone - I have two questions:

1) Can powerpoint record "reaction time" data? I would need it to record
the time elapsed from a specific slide first being shown until a "click"
response. I need accuracy to within 10 miliseconds at least.

2) Can powerpoint accept input from a touch screen interface? I'm assuming
that it's no different than a mouseclick.

Thank you in advance for any ideas that anyone might have!

-Chris
please CC me at christopher.chatham|AT|colorado.edu

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

Hi everyone - I have two questions:

1) Can powerpoint record "reaction time" data? I would need it to record
the time elapsed from a specific slide first being shown until a "click"
response. I need accuracy to within 10 miliseconds at least.

PowerPoint doesn't record data on its own. You'd need to write, or have
written for you, VBA macro code. I'm not sure about the limits of accuracy of
the system timer that you'd need to use for this.

A click on a button could trigger a macro that stops a running timer.

The problem is more one of when you *start* the timer. When the user triggers
an advance to a particular slide? Not so good, because unless PPT's ready to
advance, it won't. And depending on the system and the complexity of the
slide, it may take a variable amount of time for the slide to appear.

If the slide's simple enough and the same system's always used and enough
samples are recorded, I suppose this lag would factor itself out; that is, if
you look at the differences between samples rather than the raw time from click
to click.

I suspect it'd work better if the user triggers some action then, after a
random period of time, something appears on the slide automatically; that's
their cue to click a button which records the time between making the shape
visible and button click.

2) Can powerpoint accept input from a touch screen interface? I'm assuming
that it's no different than a mouseclick.

Should be the same.