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6.3.1 Trial Compilation Statistics
Checking Monitor Events turns on the Event Monitor debugging system, which shows
the status of events and actions as the trial is run. If Step is also checked, the program will
run only one event at a time; to go to the next event, hit the space bar. Like Check Events,
these options are useful for debugging your script. See “6.4 The Event Monitor and Variable Monitor”, p241 for more information.
6.3.1 Trial Compilation Statistics
When trials are run from the Trial Monitor and the Report Statistics box is checked, a
statistics window opens when the trials are completed. This window contains compile time
and optimization reports.
The first section of the statistics report shows the total, average, minimum, and maximum
times for:
Compile – This includes the time used to select factor levels and then read and parse at-
tributes from the script. Typically, the first couple of trials in an experiment take longer to compile than later ones, since the script interpreter may have to parse some
entries for the first time. Trials that are optimized or that have optimized events will
usually compile much faster than unoptimized trials.
Initialize – This includes the time used by the Trial Manager to initialize a trial so that
it is ready to run. This time is typically very short.
Load – This includes the time used by output devices to load stimuli into memory. If trials
are compiled in Check Events mode and Load Stimuli is not checked in the Trial
Monitor, this value will not reflect the actual load time.
Run – This includes the time spent actually running a trial. This value will be 0 if trials
are checked instead of run. If your trials have a fixed duration, it should be reflected
in this value.
In Factor format, the second half of the statistics shows how many events were optimized
during compilation and how many were not. If very few trials were optimized, you may
have optimization turned off, or the experiment may not be very optimizable. (See also “
Optimization”, p167.)
6.4 The Event Monitor and Variable Monitor
The Event Monitor and Variable Monitor are tools for debugging experiments. They are
accessed through the Monitor checkbox in the Trial Monitor (see “6.3 The Trial Monitor”,
p238). The Event Monitor provides information about a trial while the trial is running so
that the experiment designer can see more clearly what is happening while a trial is running.
The Variable Monitor similarly provides information about Trial Manager Variables used
in the experiment.
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