The goal of this page is not so much to discuss all the various methodological details of this overall 3-experiment project, but rather to showcase some of the more unique, innovative aspects of its procedures.

The image to the right illustrates one of the more interesting and useful innovations used in this project. A Palm personal data assistant (PDA) was used to administer the PANAS mood scale (among other things) to participants in the outdoor environment. Using the PDA not only eliminated excess paper use, but automated the data collection process such that PANAS data never had to be manually entered into data spreadsheets. A program on the computer was written to read the data directly from the text file created by the Palm PDA program. The particular PDA software used was a database program called HanDbase, which is a highly flexible and powerful program.
The initial image shows how the PDA displays the PANAS one adjective at a time. To rate the adjective with regard to how well it describes the participant's mood, using the typical 5-point scale, the participant simply taps the line where the rating belongs and a pop-up menu appears with the available ratings. This can be seen by passing your mouse cursor over this text or the picture to the right. A brief message remains at the bottom of the screen at all times to remind the participant of the verbal rating corresponding to the low end of the numeric scale.
The PDA was also used to automate and greatly simplify the process of yoking the word list of one set of participants to the word list chosen by another set. The rationale behind this process is discussed on the page featuring some experimental design details.

The image to the left shows another mood measure presented to participants via the PDA, the mood grid. Those who know it will recognize the standard 9 x 9 layout of the grid, which can be converted quickly into two scores for the arousal and pleasantness components of mood, each ranging from -4 to +4. These values are not generated by the PDA, but a computer program was written to provide a grid on which the PDA mark can be copied. That mark is then automatically translated to the numeric scores by the computer program, with no margin of error.

The use of an handheld electronic database to collect data outside the laboratory is by no means a unique concept, but I am unaware of any previous adaptation of the PANAS or the mood grid to this presentation and collection format.
Other innovative techniques used in this project include the use of the PANAS for rating environmental as well as mood effects, a computer-presented pictorial spatial memory test, and an overall effort to create an engaging and enjoyable experimental experience for every participant.

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