Using Our Excel Macros (PE_DataAnalysis_Macro.xls)
To Format and Analyze Your Data

For the convenience of  users who don't want to write custom programs to process data from the PsychExperiments data archive,  we offer a free Excel macro¹ that will  format and process the data in ways that will meet most users' needs.   The macro is generic in that the one macro processes data from each of the experiments.  The macro can be downloaded at the same time you download data.

Why Excel?  Because Excel is available for both Macs and PCs and because anyone who has bought a PC recently probably got a pre-installed copy with the machine.  Macs do not generally come with free software but Excel is widely available at a reasonable price. We believe, therefore, that most users will not need to buy new software just to use our data.   In addition, Excel happens to be an excellent spreadsheet program. It allows you to produce most graphs you might want and it has good descriptive statistics. Inferential analysis is limited but there are add-in programs that expand the native functions.

How do I get a copy of PE_DataAnalysis_Macro?   Beginning in Fall 2001, we changed from offering separate macros for each of the separate experiments to offering just one macro.  It's icon looks like this . You can download this macro using Download Data link on the PsychExperiments homepage. The download is fast because the file size is only 128Kb.

How do I get the data that I need? For the macro to be useful to you, you must have the experiment data on your computer.  Data are available via the same download page that is used to get the macro. Successful data downloads result in icons like those below in the directory where you choose to locate the data.  The desktop is a good place to put these because you do not need to store them permanently. The file name is created automatically using the experiment name and the time of the download.   The csv extension indicates that the data are in comma separated format (i.e., commas separate the fields in the database).

What do I do once I click on PE_DataAnalysis_Macro.xls? When you double-click the PE_DataAnalysis_Macro icon, you will be warned that the file contains macros. 

Choose "Enable macros."  (The file containing the macros is on a secure webserver, so you can trust us!  If you don't trust us then you'll just have to write your own program.)

After enabling the macros, you will see a standard Excel spreadsheet with one novel feature.  The novel feature is that Get PsychExperiments Data is an option on the toolbar.  Click this option

.

Clicking on "Get PsychExperiments Data" will open up a custom form that we have created.  It looks like this.

Clicking on the Browse button will produce the familiar window below, which you can use to locate the comma separated file that contains the data.  If there is just one csv in the directory then just that one csv file shows up. The search is automatically set up for text files with the .csv extension. In the case below there were two csv data files on the desktop.

Click Open and the file the user affiliations included in the data you selected will show up in the Data Subsets window.  If you want to analyze the subsets separately, click the Select Data Subsets checkbox.  Otherwise continue by clicking OK.

You could click OK at this point and then watch a progress bar as the macros began building a data array that consists of all the data you downloaded for this experiment.  Generally this is what you would want to do.  However, if you have downloaded different subsets of data, this form gives you the opportunity to analyze the data for some set of the subsets. 

For example, you may have downloaded the combined data for the several lab classes being taught at your school but you may want to compare the three classes.  This form allows you to select each separately.  The example above shows two classes selected. 

Clicking on OK at this point generates a workbook that contains raw data and summary data for each user along with summary data for the entire class.  Here's what the class summary looks like.

Farther down the class summary page, you find individual data in the form needed for entry into statistical packages.

Clicking on one of the tabs at the bottom shows data for the individual with the ID code entered on the tab.

Printing the Workbook will produce all the data you need for your class activities.   Contact us at PsychExps@olemiss.edu if you need help or want to make suggestions for improved data analysis. 

¹A macro is nothing more than a program, but the term macro tends to be used for programs that perform operations within application programs.  Our macro is a VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) program.