Lesson 10 - Custom trial analysis of data

In a previous lesson, you have learned how to pick trial variables from Wintrack's list of predefined variables. You may remember that in the resulting scrollsheet, trial analysis creates one column per variable, calculates the variable for every single trial, and adds one line per trial. But you can also define trial variables in a more flexible way using custom variable definition files. This lesson shows you how to do it. Because the sample analysis of this lesson combines data from several case documents, it is most efficient to make use of file drag and drop.

Running the analysis...

1. Select Close All from Wintrack's Window menu to close all open documents. Do not allow Wintrack to save changes to the documents. Load the custom setup file POOL2.WSP which you find in the WINTRACK directory of your hard disk.
2. Next, you must open your WINTRACK folder, so you can examine its content. You may achieve this using Windows™ Explorer. Arrange the folder window and the Wintrack program window on your screen in such a way that the folder window is in the foreground without completely covering the Wintrack program window.
3. In the WINTRACK folder, select the sample files SWIM1.WTR through SWIM4.WTR. Drag the selected files to the Wintrack program window and drop them onto any part of it. A menu pops up from which you should select the option Analyze…
4. The Open Case Document dialog pops up. Select the option minimize and click Ok.
5. Next, the Analyze Case Document dialog pops up:
   • In the dialog field labeled Variable definition, select the option from custom file.
   • Press the button which is associated to the option from custom file in order to open a Windows™ standard File Open dialog box. Pick the file TRIAL1.VDF in the WINTRACK directory and click Ok.
   • Set the dialog field labeled Report to merge.
   • Set the dialog field labeled Range back to all.
   • Click Ok to close the dialog box and start the analysis.
6. Wintrack analyses the selected variables for all dropped case documents and successively adds the results to a newly created scrollsheet.

   The resulting scrollsheet has six columns. The first is labeled name and for every line indicates the name of the case to which the results apply. The second column lists respective case numbers which indicate the order in which the cases were processed. The third column lists trial numbers. Columns four to six show the results for escape time, amount of time spent in the goal quadrant, and swim path length. These variables are defined in the custom variable definition file TRIAL1.VDF which we are going to inspect now.

The syntax of the custom variable definition file...

1. Run Windows™ NotePad and open the file TRIAL1.VDF. The structure of the file is similar to the one you have seen in previous lessons. However, it also contains statements which may look less familiar:

   Trial Summary, example 1
   
   [variables]
   
   Matrix Data=Stamp 
   Include Rule=All 
   Collapse Tgt=a1 Mode=Last 
   Tabulate Sce=a1 Name=time Fmat=1 Cmnt=[s] 
   
   Matrix Data=DistBder Field1=quadGoal 
   Include Rule=All Exclude Rule=Less Crit=0 
   Matrix Data=Time Collapse Tgt=a2 Mode=Sum 
   Tabulate Sce=100*(a2/a1) Name=goal Fmat=1 Cmnt=[%]
   
   Matrix Data=Path 
   Include Rule=All 
   Collapse Tgt=a1 Mode=Sum 
   Tabulate Sce=a1 Name=path Fmat=3 Cmnt=[m]
   
   [end]

   • All text above [variables] is free commentary. Between [variables] and [end] are the statements which define the sequence of analysis.
   • All statements should now look familiar to you, except for the Collapse statement which is new. In the temporary data matrix created by the Matrix statement, each trial is represented by a whole column of cells and each data point has its own cell. Because trial variables contain only one value for a whole trial, all columns of the matrix need to be collapsed into a single value, before the result can be tabulated. This is exactly the purpose of the Collapse statements: they collapse the columns of the current data matrix into a data array, whose elements each stand for one trial. Because Wintrack can store up to ten such arrays, you must indicate in each Collapse statement which one you want to use: Tgt=ann.
   • There are different ways of collapsing data matrix columns into data arrays. The first Collapse statement in the file uses Mode=Last which means it picks the value of the last selected cell of the column. The other two Collapse statements use Mode=Sum which means they take the sum of all selected cells in each column.
   • The arrays that were created by the Collapse statements serve as data source for the Tabulate statements which turn the data arrays into scrollsheet columns. Note that you can either specify a single array or an expression of arrays such as 100*(a2/a1) as data source for a Tabulate statement.
2. When you are done studying the text, terminate Windows™ NotePad and return to Wintrack.

Lesson 11 - Custom case analysis of data will show how to extend the power and flexibility of case analysis by using custom variable definition files.