Pocket-sized psychology studies: Exploring daily
Contents
1. CSV come familiar with ESP s and iESP s specific ways of de noting the text of each item as well as question orders and response options using the correct commands format and symbols to accomplish the desired research design Creat ing a study in ESP or iESP is accomplished by writing a line of syntax for each item by providing the content of the item i e writing the question in addition to specifying the response format and the order in which the item should be presented The complete study emerges as a series of these lines of syntax which are transferred to the Palm s Memo Pad application For simple applications this syntax is not difficult to learn In addition because ESP and iESP rely on the Memo Pad to program studies they can be cre ated or edited on the PDA itself using the Palm OS Memo Pad application It is unlikely that researchers would choose to create entire studies using the PDA as the only method 328 LE CHOI AND BEAL of input but this feature may be useful in making small modifications to a program once it has been loaded onto the PDA In addition the ability to upload whole studies to the PDA as text may be essential in situations such as research being run off site so that updates to the program can be sent electronically i e a text file with new syntax rather than needing to return the PDAs to the lab for updates PMAT isa Java based point and click program Creation of the study tak2. foundation for both of these programs iESP is a reliable and user friendly computerized diary program It incorporates most of the features necessary in basic ESM designs and with the many available ques tion formats including pop up menus and open ended responses and feedback provided to participants 1ESP is very user friendly iESP does require some knowledge of syntax to program studies but this syntax is straightfor ward to learn and implement in simple study designs For more complex designs i e branching or different surveys at different times more familiarity with the syntax is nec essary In addition because the syntax can be edited with the Memo Pad application on the Palm changes in the program can be made directly on the PDA without having to reload the program from the desktop computer or with any text editing program Because programming is done in a point and click Java based environment PMAT provides an accessible interface for creating studies Users may appreciate not having to learn new commands or syntax to set up their studies and the interface i e menus and windows may be accessible to most researchers In addition PMAT sup ports many different question formats including external applications Furthermore it is not overly complicated and is flexible for creating complex scheduling options and question patterns including branching interval and event contingent designs in the same study and differ
3. goal of this article is to provide information regard ing the conducting of diary studies electronically using personal digital assistants PDAs with the specific aim of summarizing the features offered in three readily avail able software packages for conducting diary studies on the Palm operating system OS The Role of PDAs in Diary Research The cost of palmtop computers has dropped substan tially in some cases to under 100 per unit making Copyright 2006 Psychonomic Society Inc 326 LE CHOI AND BEAL them an attractive alternative to traditional paper and pencil diaries There are potential advantages to using PDAs to collect diary data including the possibility of higher compliance rates Stone Shiffman Schwartz Broderick amp Hufford 2002 use of complex survey structures and linking of responses to the real time tra jectory of specific events For example computerized methods can control tim ing to help verify that respondents complete their reports when they are instructed to as opposed to taking the survey at an unknown time Researchers can choose to make surveys unavailable after a set amount of time if participants skip a data collection period thus eliminating responses that would be made outside of the desired time frame In addition if researchers do not wish to restrict response times electronically collected data are time date stamped allowing them to identify and exclude if desired re
4. the range of possibilities in diary study designs The aim of everyday experience methods Reis amp Gable 2000 also known as experience sampling meth ods ESM or daily diary studies is to capture momentary psychological processes operating outside of laboratory settings These methods provide researchers with a win dow into experiences occurring in the ebb and flow of everyday life Reis amp Gable 2000 p 190 and provide data that may be richer than those collected in the lab These data offer insight into ongoing affective cognitive and social processes over time with considerably less ret rospective bias Robinson amp Clore 2002 In addition this methodology is ideal for tracking phenomena of in terest over time as discrete events rather than relying on global reports that require participants to mentally aggre gate their experiences over a given span of time Further more these designs may have increased external validity because they represent participants experiences within the context of everyday life rather than as a function of the laboratory setting Early diary studies have revolved around participants reporting on phenomena of interest at several points each This research was supported in part by a grant to Haverford College from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute It should be noted that the third author was involved in the development of PMAT but was not di rectly involved in the compari
5. 6 FELDMAN BARRETT L amp BARRETT D J 2001 Computerized experience sampling How technology facilitates the study of conscious experi ence Social Science Computer Review 19 175 185 FRIJDA N H 1993 Moods emotion episodes and emotions In M Lewis amp J M Haviland Eds Handbook of emotions pp 381 403 New York Guilford GREEN A S RAFAELI E BOLGER N SHROUT P E amp Reis H T 2006 Paper or plastic Data equivalence in paper and electronic diaries Psychological Methods 11 87 105 KENNEDY MOORE E GREENBERG M A NEWMAN M G amp STONE A A 1992 The relationship between daily events and mood The mood measure may matter Motivation amp Emotion 16 143 155 MEHL M R PENNEBAKER J W Crow D M DABBS J amp PRICE J H 2001 The Electronically Activated Recorder EAR A device for sampling naturalistic daily activities and conversations Be havior Research Methods Instruments amp Computers 33 5 17 523 Reris H T amp GABLE S L 2000 Event sampling and other meth ods for studying daily experience In H T Reis amp C M Judd Eds Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology pp 190 222 New York Cambridge University Press ROBINSON M D amp CLORE G L 2002 Belief and feeling Evidence for an accessibility model of emotional self report Psychological Bulletin 128 934 960 STONE A A SHIFFMAN S SCHWA
6. Behavior Research Methods 2006 38 2 325 332 Pocket sized psychology studies Exploring daily diary software for Palm Pilots BENJAMIN LE and HAT NIM CHOI Haverford College Haverford Pennsylvania and DANIEL J BEAL Rice University Houston Texas Daily dairies also known as experience sampling methods ESM or everyday experience methods are acommon methodology utilized to provide insight into momentary psychological processes Tradi tionally such studies often have utilized paper and pencil surveys administered several times each day over a span of several days or weeks However advances in technology now allow these studies to be conducted using palmtop computers i e personal digital assistants PDAs Three software packages for running these studies on the Palm operating system were explored and compared on a number of features Specifically ESP Experience Sampling Program by Feldman Barrett amp Barrett 2001 iESP Version 3 2 Intel Experience Sampling Program by Intel Research Seattle amp the University of Wash ington Computer Science and Engineering Department and PMAT Version 2 0 Purdue Momentary Assessment Tool by the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University were examined with their key features compared These advances in software for running diary studies include a number of features that provide researchers with methods and information previously unavailable in diary studies and may expand
7. RTZ J E BRODERICK J E amp HUFFORD M R 2002 Patient non compliance with paper diaries British Medical Journal 324 1193 1194 WHEELER L amp Reis H T 1991 Self recording of everyday life events Origins types and uses Journal of Personality 59 339 354 Wirtz D KRUGER J NAPA SCOLLON C amp DIENER E 2003 What to do on spring break The role of predicted on line and remembered experience in future choice Psychological Science 14 520 524 APPENDIX Internet Links for ESM Programs and Resources ESP iESP PMAT General ESM resources www72 bc edu barretli esp seattleweb intel research net projects ESM iESP html www miri purdue edu PMAT www2 be edu connert esm htm Manuscript received December 16 2004 revision accepted for publication April 15 2005
8. a PalmDatabase PDB file Availability of instructional resources Both ESP and iESP provide online user manuals 1 e hyperlinked Web pages available at the same sites as those at which these respective programs are downloaded They are not extensive but provide the necessary information to under stand the syntax used and the options available in setting up a study Although the Web based interface is easy to navigate it does require that the reader be connected to the Internet to access them PMAT s user manual is avail able as a PDF file which can be downloaded and easily printed and provides detailed instructions about using each of the program s features Question Administration Random ordering of questions All three programs allow items in a given survey to be presented in a random order however they accomplish this in different ways and none provides total control and flexibility in creat ing complex designs that include random and fixed order presentations In ESP all items or a subset of items can be set to be presented in a random order However if only a subset of items are randomized they must always come last in the sequence iESP follows the basic structure of ESP but allows for somewhat more flexibility in that it allows researchers to specify the probability that an item will be presented at a particular time PMAT differs from ESP and iESP in that items are des ignated within blocks of questions ques
9. addition PMAT includes the ability to set alerts at fixed times interval contingent the device sounds at a previ ously designated time Different forms at different times of day With ESP all forms each day must have the same format i e contain the same items PMAT however allows the researcher to set different forms for specific time spans through out the day For example using PMAT one could have a morning form that randomly fired between 9 00 a m and 11 00 a m a midday form between 11 00 a m and 1 00 p m and an afternoon form between 1 00 p m and 3 00 p m and each of these forms could contain different items Likewise iESP will allow for different items to be pre sented at different times each day using syntax to specify these items iESP works from a pool of items created for the whole questionnaire whereas PMAT works with sets of items each assigned to a specific time span and re searchers could use the branching function to create dif ferent paths of questions for different times Set multiple days ESP requires that the schedule for each day be identical For example a given study may run between 9 00 a m and 9 00 p m for all days iESP allows different schedules to be set for weekends than for week days e g on a weekday the study runs from 9 00 a m to 5 00 p m but on weekends it runs from 11 00 a m to 9 00 p m and PMAT allows each day to have its own schedule The ability to set different s
10. and PMAT are compatible only with machines running Palm OS Palm OS supported The developers of ESP report that it runs on older versions of Palm OS 3 1 and 3 5 iESP and PMAT support newer versions of the Palm OS 3 5 and higher for iESP 4 x and higher for PMAT Programmer interface The three available pack ages differ in the methods used to create a study i e entering items selecting response formats and creating schedules ESP and iESP require the researcher to input questions via the Memo Pad function of the Palm Desktop application on the desktop machine This task is relatively straightforward but requires knowledge of the program s syntax Specifically users will find that they need to be DAILY DIARIES ON PALM PILOTS 327 Table 1 Features in ESP iESP and PMAT Feature ESP iESP v3 2 PMAT v2 0 General Information Platforms supported Palm OS Palm OS Palm OS Windows CE Palm OS supported 3 1 3 1 1 3 5 and higher 4 x and higher 3 5 0 3 5 1 Programmer interface Palm Memopad Palm Memopad Java based either on desktop either on desktop Windows or Mac or Palm or Palm PMAT desktop application Availability of instructional resources Online Online PDF downloadable ESP Web page iESP Web page from PMAT Web page Question Administration Random ordering of questions Branching Signal contingent Event contingent yes but limited Combination of signal and event contingent in one study no Alerts fire at random ti
11. are free to exit the program and open other applications This feature may be important as a means of conserv ing batteries i e participants can diminish power while engaging in other activities on the Palm Also in ESP DAILY DIARIES ON PALM PILOTS 329 and iESP we found that upon exiting the program noti fication alerts did not consistently sound and therefore prohibiting the participants from closing the iESP or ESP was essential to maintaining the schedule for the study Although in many situations it is desirable to have participants locked out from using other applications on the device it is possible that researchers will choose not to enable this function In situations in which battery power is not a concern i e short duration studies or very long studies in which the device will need to be recharged peri odically regardless of whether it is locked or not allow ing the participants to utilize other functions of the PDA may encourage participation in the study Alerts fire when the program is not open In ESP and iESP if the participant exits out of the diary program alarms will not sound as scheduled This problem can be avoided by locking out other programs using the takes over device function but if this feature is not engaged and the participants close ESP or iESP the diary software is essentially disengaged until the program is opened again PMAT is designed so that if the participants exit ou
12. be used easily with a wide variety of statistical soft ware We note however that the output data structure for these programs may not be one to which some researchers are accustomed In particular all three programs provide a separate line either for each signal ESP and iESP or for each survey item PMAT This allows for maximum flexibility in terms of the desired analysis type e g mul tilevel modeling but also requires some work in format ting the data to fit the desired analysis SUMMARY Once they have become familiar with the PDA and Palm OS both of which are designed to be quite user friendly it is likely that researchers can become profi cient with ESP iESP and PMAT 2 0 rather quickly In our experience learning the basics of these programs can be accomplished in several hours and once a simple study is planned it can be implemented on the PDA with these programs with a day or two of work As was mentioned earlier ESP is the original diary ap plication and has somewhat basic functionality In com parison with the available alternatives it has several limi tations and is not as strong as either iESP or PMAT It is however perfectly capable of running diary studies that employ simple designs and researchers would be wise to examine it as an introduction to these sorts of data collec tion methods In addition iESP and PMAT owe much to Feldman Barrett and Barrett s 2001 work which serves as the conceptual
13. chedules for weekdays and weekends may be especially useful given that response patterns may differ between weekdays and weekends Kennedy Moore Greenberg Newman amp Stone 1992 Participant defined time spans All three of these packages allow the researcher to determine time spans for daily schedules e g the study may run from 9 00 a m to 9 00 p m PMAT also allows participants to define their own time spans For example if the participants have schedules that differ from one another e g some par ticipants have a 9 00 a m to 9 00 p m schedule whereas others have a 10 30 a m to 10 30 p m schedule it might be useful to let them determine their own starting and end ing times In ESP and iESP it would be possible for the researcher to manually set the times on each PDA to cor respond with each participant s schedule i e to create separate schedules for each participant PMAT differs in that in addition to the option of setting each PDA sepa rately participants can set their own schedules immedi ately prior to the start of the study Can take over device All three programs allow re searchers to specify whether the program takes over the PDA thus locking out participants from using other programs on the Palm e g playing solitaire or using the datebook If this option is enabled once the study is initi ated the participants cannot exit the diary program How ever if it is disabled the participants
14. d labeling of buttons iESP allows for much more flexibility providing several for mats for this type of item including buttons a pop up menu with up to 9 response items a list with up to 6 response items and a sliding scale see the Scaled Re sponses With Slider section below PMAT also allows for multiple choice one response items with up to 50 re sponse items but does not include a pop up menu format In addition PMAT includes a sliding scale format Multiple choice multiple responses i e check lists Both iESP and PMAT feature check lists that allow for multiple responses ESP does not iESP offers up to 6 alternatives and PMAT allows up to 50 Scaled responses with slider Both 1ESP and PMAT but not ESP feature a scaled response with slider for mat i e a continuous scale in which participants use the stylus to move an indicator along a horizontal line to specify their responses In iESP the maximum number of increments in the scale is 100 with the endpoints labeled PMAT provides similar functionality with two types of sliders The first allows the two endpoints to be labeled with the labels for intermediate points also appearing as the participants roll over other points with the slider In addition a numerical slider is available with values rang ing from 0 to 100 i e for percentages Neither program allows for the starting point to be specified In iESP the slider defaults to the middle of the scale i
15. e one has a basic knowledge of the software creating com plex studies in PMAT may be more straightforward Limitations and Future Directions Although both iESP and PMAT have made great strides in advancing the tools available for daily diary research there are still many features that should be considered for future generations of palmtop diary software In particular allowing truly dynamic timing of daily forms is desirable A program that provides participants with the ongoing ability to modify their daily schedules themselves would be ideal IESP and PMAT begin to provide some flexibil ity in that different days can differ in schedules weekends vs weekdays in iESP PMAT allows each day to differ and participants can set their schedule at the beginning of the study in PMAT however neither of these programs allows for on the fly scheduling changes In addition increasing the flexibility of item presenta tion and formats would be desirable For example more flexibility in randomization of items and groups of items is still needed Furthermore although PMAT and iESP offer a range of response formats others such as a rank order format might be useful to researchers In addition other features such as providing researchers with the ability to change the default position of the slider allowing multiple items to be presented on a single screen and giving the option to allow participants to go back and modify previ ous r
16. ed signals would not constitute a random sample of daily experiences rather they would represent a convenience sample of daily experiences In ESP assuming that the takes over device feature is engaged alerts will sound as scheduled However in iESP there is a feature allowing participants to turn the alert sounds on or off and if supported by the hardware alerts can be set to vibrate even if they are locked out The important difference to note is that in iESP the alerts are turned off and remain off until the participants turn them back on This is somewhat different from PMAT s do not 330 LE CHOI AND BEAL disturb function which is timed i e 5 60 min as de scribed above although it serves the similar function of allowing the participants to silence their PDA device if necessary Thus with iESP researchers rely on partici pants to turn their alerts on when it is once again conve nient whereas PMAT automatically turns alerts back on after the designated time Feedback regarding study progress iESP provides feedback for participants at the completion of each daily form e g form 3 of 15 completed as well as a notifi cation at the end of the study ESP notifies only at the end of the study and PMAT does not include either of these features Question Formats Multiple choice one response All three programs allow for this essential item format however ESP is somewhat limited in display an
17. es cannot be made off of item sets that already serve as a branch off of the main set of items which may be limiting in some research designs Signal and event contingent study designs In signal contingent studies the researcher determines the number of data collection times each day at either set or random intervals and the device alerts participants to complete surveys at each of those times For instance the participants may be signaled several times each day to report on their current moods In event contingent stud ies the participants activate the diary program themselves when events of interest occur during each day For exam ple researchers interested in relationship conflict would have participants initiate the diary program following each argument they have with their spouses during the duration of the study All three programs support either of these designs however only PMAT supports designs that incorporate both in the same study e g a study in which the participants both are signaled periodically to report on mood and are asked to respond following each instance of marital conflict Alerts fire at random or fixed times One of the most important features of any signal contingent design is the necessity to set alerts that sound at random times within a designated time frame e g the participants re spond at four randomly picked times during the day ESP iESP and PMAT all include this indispensable feature In
18. es place within a Windows or Macintosh based desktop application and does not require use of syntax to program the study All commands are specified via the desktop computer interface and beyond the input ting of item text with the keyboard most functions use the mouse or keyboard shortcuts In addition to copying and pasting text PMAT 2 0 allows for copying and pasting of individual questions or large question sets Specifically to create a study researchers first input individual items or sets of items via the keyboard or by pasting copied text from other applications In addition response op tions are specified by selecting the desired format from a menu and adding any text to those response options Next time spans in an interval contingent study that desig nate the periods of time during which participants can be signaled are specified using menus and windows In the most basic context this would be designating when the participants days start and end but could include more complex schedules such as separate morning midday and evening periods Signal patterns are then set for those time spans again using windows which provide the schedule of alerts that the participants will receive dur ing the time spans Finally question sets i e groups of items are assigned to each of those signal patterns thus specifying which items will be presented at each time pe riod The completed study is then exported to the Palm as
19. esponses within the same survey i e to correct a response made in error would make these programs even more attractive Finally software that provides the ability to assign one PDA to several users e g one Palm for a dyad in a study of marital interaction rather than one PDA for each partner while limiting access to surveys to each user and keeping track of each individual s responses would help maximize researchers resources in conduct ing diary studies with PDAs One of the most exciting aspects of using palmtop com puters for diary studies is that new avenues are opened regarding the types of data that can be collected electroni cally The external application feature in PMAT hints at the future possibilities of these methods In addition as the hardware and software continue to evolve it is likely that researchers will be able to capture many other types of data electronically For example as PDAs begin to in tegrate digital cameras it will be possible to acquire lit eral snapshots or video of participants environments It should be noted that C A E S Context Aware Expe rience Sampling Tool by the Changing Places Consor tium at MIT is a new ESM program that is optimized for multimedia inputs Although not ideal for the flexible presentation of survey items and therefore not ideal for social scientists C A E S clearly provides insights into the future possibilities of this technology Likewise PDAs wit
20. fied the original program so as to greatly expand the available features PMAT was independently designed from the ground up in order to maximize its flexibility for use in a range of research contexts All three of these programs are free to download and use in research see the Appendix for information on downloading and are open source thus allowing researchers with programming skills to modify them to suit their needs OVERVIEW OF FEATURES Although it is acknowledged that each research ap plication may have somewhat different software require ments to successfully execute the design of the study it is likely that there is a core set of features of interest to researchers as they select software suitable for diary stud ies We should note at the outset that ESP the original diary software application has not changed much since its inception As a result it does not contain many of the features included in the other two applications However we recommend ESP as a good place to start in order to un derstand the more complex software packages available We mention this now in order to provide readers with an appropriate context for evaluating the various features in cluded in each application Below many of these features are identified and described and Table 1 summarizes these features relative to ESP iESP and PMAT General Information Platforms supported ESP is designed to run on both Windows CE and Palm OS machines iESP
21. h sound recording capabilities will be able to document participants cognitions i e verbal 332 LE CHOI AND BEAL izing current thoughts or interactions i e conversations akin to the EAR technology developed by Mehl Pen nebaker Crow Dabbs amp Price 2001 Furthermore as wireless technologies are expanded data from PDAs may be available instantly rather than only upon the comple tion of a study Given that ESP iESP and PMAT are all open source it is only a matter of time until these software packages evolve to utilize these advanced PDA hardware features Thanks to the pioneering efforts of Feldman Barrett and Barrett 2001 and the advances made by iESP and PMAT researchers armed with a handful of Palm OS machines run ning these software packages can conduct complex studies to obtain daily diary data These applications for collecting diary data include a number of attractive features that pro vide researchers with methods and information previously unavailable in diary studies e g random ordering of items and time date stamping of responses and may expand the range of possibilities in diary study designs REFERENCES BEAL D J amp Weiss H M 2003 Methods of ecological momen tary assessment in organizational research Organizational Research Methods 6 440 464 BOLGER N Davis A amp RAFAELI E 2003 Diary methods Captur ing life as it is lived Annual Review of Psychology 54 579 61
22. ing question sets at different time points each day In short PMAT is a user friendly yet very powerful program for both simple and advanced applications The differences in user interfaces and methods for en tering questions between iESP and PMAT have implica tions for the learning curves for each of these packages The syntax for iESP is easy to learn for simple diary studies However as study designs become more complex a more sophisticated knowledge of iESP is necessary Researchers need to be quite familiar with iESP syntax to create intricate studies whereas simple designs can be executed quickly and with minimal effort with this program PMAT on the other hand takes time to become familiar with because it requires users to learn how to navigate various menus and windows to create a study However once researchers are familiar with the PMAT interface creating both simple and complex designs can be done with little difficulty In short novice users wishing to run very basic diary studies will find iESP to be a good choice Likewise researchers with the time and expertise to fully learn iESP syntax will have the ability to create very complex studies On the other DAILY DIARIES ON PALM PILOTS 331 hand researchers learning the software will find that they can create both simple and complex studies with PMAT It does take more initial familiarity with the software to build a simple study in PMAT in comparison with iESP but onc
23. its will need to be re charged periodically for long diary studies i e several weeks Other units using nonrechargeable batteries re quire that batteries be replaced periodically If batteries die or are removed for a period greater than a few minutes or the machine is hard reset all internal memory is reset to factory conditions the device will revert to the default software This means that no add on applications are re tained therefore in all three programs all data as well as surveys will be lost In PMAT if there is a memory card present data will be retrievable as of midnight the night before the batteries died Whereas hard resets or dead batteries result in a loss of all files and data associated with the diary software a soft reset i e akin to restarting the device will not affect any of these programs Surveys loaded on the PDA as well as any data that have been previously collected will be retained and the diary program should resume normal operation following the soft reset Export to a comma separated value format or as plain text ESP exports data to plain text whereas iESP outputs as text or in a comma separated value CSV for mat Likewise PMAT data are exported as CSV Overall because of the flexibility of programs such as Microsoft Excel and most commonly used statistical packages e g SPSS and SAS in importing common file types such as CSV and text data gathered with ESP iESP and PMAT can
24. mes Alerts fire at fixed times Different forms at different times per day Set multiple days Participant defined time spans Can take over device Alerts fire when program is not open Response time windows Do not disturb Feedback regarding study progress Multiple choice one response Multiple choice multiple response i e check boxes Scaled response with slider Open ended responses Record response latency Time date stamp External application Save data to memory card Exported data format yes but limited yes but limited no yes yes but limited to one level yes yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes yes yes no no yes no yes with some yes effort no yes weekends vs yes each day can be weekdays only different no no yes yes yes yes no no yes yes in seconds yes in seconds yes in minutes no yes alerts on yes alerts off for a or off set time yes participants yes study progress no notified at the end of the study Question Formats yes only buttons provided and noti fication at the end of the study yes as buttons yes as buttons lists with limited for lists pop up menu or slider matting options or slider no yes yes no yes endpoint yes endpoint labels labels labels also appear upon rolling over other points with the slider also a 0 100 numeric format is available no yes no yes yes yes yes yes yes no no yes Data Handling no no yes text text or CSV
25. n PMAT it de faults to the right side Open ended responses iESP allows for free form text entry using the stylus with graffiti i e character rec ognition or the virtual keyboard Neither ESP nor PMAT includes this response format Response latencies and time date stamp All three programs record response latency for each item i e how many milliseconds it took the participants to respond to the item in addition to recording the exact time and date that each survey was completed External application In addition to the more standard item formats PMAT allows researchers to attach an exter nal application as an item in a questionnaire External ap plications can be one of the many available for download for Palm OS or one designed for a particular purpose by the researcher For example if researchers are interested in changes in performance on a vigilance task a Palm based application that presents such a task can be included as part of the questionnaire Handling Data Save data to memory card In addition to storing data in the Palm s internal memory PMAT will save data to a memory card if the PDA supports external media If a memory card is present in the unit data are backed up to the card at midnight each day This may be an important feature so that data will not be lost should the batteries run out or the Palm is reset It should be noted that some PDA units employ inter nal rechargeable batteries these un
26. sons between PMAT iESP and ESP de scribed in this article He has no financial stake in the PMAT software package which is available as freeware Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to B Le Department of Psychology Haver ford College Haverford PA 19041 e mail ble haverford edu 325 day for multiple days Often the participants have been alerted e g with a pager multiple times each day i e signal or interval contingent Wheeler amp Reis 1991 and have been asked to report on their current state or their states since the prior reporting period In addition the par ticipants may have been asked to complete reports follow ing events of interest i e event contingent rather than at specific times The duration of these studies typically has ranged from several days to several weeks during which time the participants were trusted to accurately respond to these alerts and events in a timely manner and to record their reports in a notebook of survey forms provided to them by the researcher The aim of this article is not to outline or review the rationale for using these methods or to detail how the data are collected and analyzed There are a wealth of reviews e g Beal amp Weiss 2003 Bolger Davis amp Rafaeli 2003 Reis amp Gable 2000 and reports of empirical stud ies e g Wirtz Kruger Napa Scollon amp Diener 2003 available that provide these details thoroughly Instead the
27. sponses made outside of the determined time frame and providing more precision and certainty in link ing responses to signaling times In addition to the advantages related to data verification computerized procedures allow greater flexibility in item presentation e g items may be presented in fixed and or random order and can record additional information such as response latency for each item Also branching can be employed allowing researchers to provide follow up questions to specific responses Finally events that have known or hypothesized durations and decay lengths e g the rise and fall of an emotional episode Frijda 1993 can be tracked more precisely because of the connection between survey responses and time since the occurrence of the target event So respondents using PDAs might re port an event of emotional consequence at one time and follow up signals from the PDA would allow researchers to examine the duration and decay of the resulting emo tional response Although PDAs certainly present advantages in flex ibility over paper and pencil measures it is unclear how important some of these advantages may be For example recent work has suggested that compliance rates between PDAs and paper diaries do not always differ substantially and that these differences do not greatly affect the psy chometric properties of questionnaire measures Green Rafaeli Bolger Shrout amp Reis 2006 In addition the flexibilit
28. t of PMAT it will automatically open when a signal is scheduled to occur Response time windows In ESP and iESP research ers can specify the window during which the question naire is available following the alert in seconds Spe cifically how long the questionnaire will be available for e g 120 sec and how often during that window reminder alerts will fire e g every 10 sec can be set Likewise in PMAT the response time window in minutes can be specified with an option of having reminder beeps sound every 30 sec for the first 2 min of the window Do not disturb With signal contingent studies in PMAT if participants are currently busy and cannot com plete a survey they can set the do not disturb feature This allows the participants to block out signal beeps until a more convenient time 5 15 30 or 60 min later Es sentially it is akin to a mute button for a particular period of time Surveys may become available and participants can complete them however the corresponding alerts will not sound It is important to note that the purpose of this feature as opposed to a postpone feature such as a snooze button is to not compromise the schedule of the alerts and responses whether set at random or fixed intervals while giving the participants the option of not being bothered if busy With the do not disturb feature schedules of alerts remain intact the alerts are simply si lenced Postpon
29. tion sets The order of items within each question set can be random ized however the order of the question sets themselves cannot be randomized Therefore if a researcher needs all the items to be presented in a randomized order all the items are placed in a single question set If multiple question sets are employed the items within each set can be randomly ordered In short all three programs provide researchers with some options allowing for randomization of items Each allows for randomizing of a subset or all items to varying degrees In addition PMAT allows for randomizing items within multiple blocks of questions however none of the programs offers random ordering of groups of items Branching Branching refers to the possibility of spec ifying that the presentation of subsequent items depends on responses to previous items In other words partici pants paths through the survey depend on their previ ous responses Both iESP and PMAT include this feature however ESP does not but differ in their study design interfaces In iESP by using syntax tags researchers can specify the sequence of items contingent on responses to previous items With an understanding of this syntax iESP allows for complex branching structures and study designs With PMAT branching is accomplished by link ing specific sets of items to a particular response option using dialogue boxes PMAT is limited to one level of branching so that branch
30. y in structuring surveys on PDAs also carries with it more complex data structures that often can be difficult to deal with when one attempts to analyze the data from a PDA diary study So although PDAs certainly offer potential advantages it is only fair to point out that traditional paper and pencil diary methods often can be effective and easy to employ Available Software Packages Although reviews of techniques for collecting and ana lyzing diary data are readily available in the literature and hardware is becoming more affordable for conducting these studies little information has been collected regard ing the software available for conducting these studies There are a handful of software options available to re searchers for running diary studies on the Palm OS and the goal of this review is to summarize the features of three of these programs in order to assist researchers in choosing the one best suited for their research needs The three programs reviewed are ESP Experience Sampling Program by Feldman Barrett amp Barrett 2001 IESP Ver sion 3 2 Intel Experience Sampling Program by Intel Research Seattle amp the University of Washington Com puter Science and Engineering Department and PMAT Version 2 0 Purdue Momentary Assessment Tool by the Military Family Research Institute at Purdue University ESP is the original program developed for PDAs running Windows CE or the Palm OS iESP is built upon ESP and has modi
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