segmag (version 1.2.4)

segmag: Create Segmentation Object

Description

This function creates a segmag object from a vector of participant ids and a vector of times when the participants pressed the segmentation key on the keyboard. All functions in the segmag package work on this object (e.g., plotting results, determining event boundaries). The additional parameters define the size and offset of the Gaussian that is centered around each key press and the time window in the data set to consider (time_min, time_max, time_steps).

Usage

segmag(ids, time_keypresses, data = NULL, time_min = (min(min(time_keypresses), (min(time_keypresses) + gauss_offset)) - gauss_cutoff), time_max = (max(max(time_keypresses), (max(time_keypresses) + gauss_offset)) + gauss_cutoff), time_steps = 0.01, gauss_offset = 0, gauss_sd = 1, gauss_cutoff = 6 * gauss_sd)

Arguments

ids

factor assigning a participant id to each key press (same length as time_keypresses)

time_keypresses

numeric vector with the times when the segmentation key was pressed on the keyboard

data

optional data.frame where ids and time_keypresses are stored in

time_min

time window of key press times used in calculations

time_max

time window of key press times used in calculations

time_steps

interval length of time steps within time window

gauss_offset

offset the overlaid Gaussian relative to the key press times in order to account for manual reaction times (0: centered, negative values: assume that event boundary occurred before key press)

gauss_sd

sd of overlaid Gaussian

gauss_cutoff

speed up calculations by not considering values of the overlaid Gaussian that are more than gauss_cutoff units from the center of the Gaussian away (because they are very close to 0)

Value

segmag object (also contains a data.frame with segmentation magnitude across time as $data)

Details

First, segmentation magnitude for each participant across time is calculated by centering a Gaussian around each key press. If multiple Gaussians overlap across time then only the maximum values is used (not sum) to ensure an equal weight of each participant on the overall segmentation magnitude. Thereafter, the segmentation magnitudes of the participants are summed up to define the overall segmentation magnitude across time. The higher the segmentation magnitude at one point in time the more participants pressed a key around this time point. To account for the fact that participants have a certain temporal error in their key presses, Gaussians are used to expand the influence of a single key press into time. Furthermore, an offset to these Gaussians can be defined in order to account for manual reaction times and to get a better estimate of the "real" time point of an event boundary.

In order to achieve a decent calculation speed, a fixed time scale with interval length time_steps and starting from time_min is used. All key-press times are rounded to their closest interval. A warning is issued if this changes the raw key-press times.

See Also

bootstrap_critical_cutoffs, get_eb_times, plot.segmag

Examples

# segmentation responses (key presses) of 6 participants watching a movie (30 seconds long)
participant_ids <- factor(c(1,1,1,1,2,2,3,3,3,3,4,4,4,5,5,6,6,6))
time_keypresses <- c(7,12,18,25,12.1,24.9,6.9,10,25.2,29,7.2,12.05,17.5,7.05,25,6.9,16.1,25)

# create segmag object
segmag1 <- segmag(participant_ids, time_keypresses, time_min=0, time_max=30)

## Not run: 
# # estimate the critical cutoff against an alpha level of 0.05
# # Note: This is an estimate an will vary slightly against multiple calls of this function
# #       (variation is the lower the higher n_bootstrap is set)
# critical_cutoff <- bootstrap_critical_cutoffs(segmag1, 5000, .95)
# ## End(Not run)


# timestamps of significant event boundaries within the movie
eb_times <- get_eb_times(segmag1, critical_cutoff)

plot(segmag1, critical_cutoff, eb_times)