Recording and saving data

There are three kinds of datasets that psiTurk will produce:

1. Trial-by-trial log file

2. Unstructured (field, value) pairs

3. Browser events

Recording trial data

The first dataset that will be produced by your experiment will be a simple log file, which you add to a single line at a time. In order to add a line of data to the log, use psiturk.recordTrialData:

psiturk.recordTrialData(['this', 'is', 1, 'line'])

The list of values that you supply to recordTrialData will then be appended to the log. It is up to you how to structure those lists; when you are ready to analyze the data, the log will be provided as a CSV file that you will then have to parse as part of your analysis. You can export the CSV file using the Dashboard's export data function.

Recording unstructured data

In addition to trial by trial data, there is often a need to record information about a participant in the form of (field, value) pairs, for which you can use psiturk.recordUnstructuredData:

psiturk.recordUnstructuredData('age', 24)
psiturk.recordUnstructuredData('response', 'yes')

Like the trial-by-trial data, it is up to you to decide whether or not to use this function. For some kinds of experiments (like simple surveys), this might be the only function you need. Whatever data is added using psiturk.recordUnstructuredData can then be downloaded as a separate CSV file.

Saving the data

It's important to remember that psiturk.recordTrialData and psiturk.recordUnstructuredData only modify the psiturk object on the client side. If you want to save the data that has been accumulated to the server, you must call psiturk.saveData().

It's up to you how often psiturk.saveData() syncs the task data to the server (e.g., after every block, or once at the end of the experiment). Using saveData frequently will limit the loss of data if the participant runs into an error, but keep in mind that it involves a new request to the server each time it is called.

Browser event data

The third dataset is generated automatically without any input from the experiment, and is used to track special kinds of events that occur as a worker is interacting with the page. Currently, this includes:

1. "resize" events: when the worker changes the size of their browser window (the first value recorded is the initial size of the window)

2. "focus" events: when the worker switches to and from a different browser window or application. If the worker leaves the experiment window, a "focus off" event is recorded; when they return a "focus on" event is recorded.

Retrieving datasets