Randomization Question (case 25685)

I've been searching the forums for an answer but haven't found anything that fits exactly. I'm sure there's a solution out there but everything I've tried so far has failed. I have a question about some randomization procedures.

A simplified version is I have a 4 blocks of 10 stimuli and each of the 10 stimuli has 5 items that needs to stay in the same order. So for example, each of the 10 stimuli includes instruction, image, instruction, scale response, scale response (in that order). So each block would have 50 total items (10 stimuli with 5 items each).

I've been assigning each group of items the same BGR number which successfully keeps the 5 items together. However, I also want to keep the first 10 stimuli together (in Block 1) and the second 10 stimuli together (in Block 2), Block 3, and then Block 4. Is there a way to do this? Furthermore, is there a way to then randomize the order the blocks are presented (this isn't as important but would be great). So participant 1 gets Block 1, 2, 3, 4; participant 2 gets Block 3, 4, 1, 2, etc.

Thank you!

Are you trying to randomize the presentation of any, all, or some specific stimuli in each of the four blocks?

[QUOTE=jason_reed;23822]Are you trying to randomize the presentation of any, all, or some specific stimuli in each of the four blocks?[/QUOTE]

Yes, the presentation of all of the stimuli in the blocks is randomized. I have groups of stimuli that have to be presented together and in order (e.g., instruction, image, scale response) and I?ve been grouping them together with the BGR column.

You should be able to accomplish this by first listing all stimuli and items within a block in the order you want them to appear in the .que file. Do this for all four blocks of ten stimuli and the 5 items corresponding to each stimulus.

Then, every stimulus and item in a particular block should get the same non-zero positive integer in its bgr field (i.e., everything in block one should get a number like 1). This should present everything in a particular block in the order in which it is listed in the .que file, but randomize the order of the blocks presented to a particular participant.

[QUOTE=jason_reed;23842]You should be able to accomplish this by first listing all stimuli and items within a block in the order you want them to appear in the .que file. Do this for all four blocks of ten stimuli and the 5 items corresponding to each stimulus.

Then, every stimulus and item in a particular block should get the same non-zero positive integer in its bgr field (i.e., everything in block one should get a number like 1). This should present everything in a particular block in the order in which it is listed in the .que file, but randomize the order of the blocks presented to a particular participant.[/QUOTE]


Thank you, this is a great solution for randomizing the blocks.
Is there also a way to randomize the presentation order of the 10 stimuli within each block?

Within each block, assign all of the items you want to randomize the same nonzero positive integer in the wgr field. Items with the same number in the wgr field will be randomized when running that .que file. Use different nonzero positive integers to randomize different sets of items.