File (Experiment File)

1.QuickInfo

Names of the files to be presented in each condition

Value

Any file name ending with the following three letter extensions:

Purpose

The File Name field simply tells MediaLab which files to present in the different experimental conditions. See Questionnaire item types for more details on specific file types.

Hints

Double-click on the File field to browse your hard drive and select files automatically. Press Enter to manually edit a file path.

To be safe, you can always specify the complete file path (e.g., c:\experiments\myexp\myimage.bmp). If you specify a complete path, remember to make sure the path is correct if you load the experiment files onto other computers.

Advanced Hints

If the file is located in the same folder as your experiment file, then you can simply enter the name of the file (e.g., myimage.bmp). If the file is located in a subfolder that is located in the same folder as your experiment files, then you can enter the name of the subfolder followed by the name of the file (e.g., images\myimage.bmp). Otherwise, you need to specify the full path and name of the file you want to present (e.g., c:\mypictures\myimage.bmp).

The advantage of placing the file in the experiment directory (or a subfolder) is that the experiment folder can then be moved to a different place and you won't have to worry about checking path names (e.g., c:\..., d:\..., etc.)

If the file is not in the same directory as the experiment, and it's not in a subfolder, then you must specify the complete path of the file, e.g., c:\pictures\myimage.bmp

Files may also be located on another computer on your local network. MediaLab can display files located on any computer on your network as long as the drive has been "mapped" on the system running MediaLab. For example, a hard drive on another computer may be mapped on your system as "h:\" or "s:\" etc. If you are new to mapping, ask your network administrator about "mapping" the drives of other machines on your network or refer to the instructions from Microsoft about mapping in Windows. Once the drive is mapped, you can refer to files on that drive just as you would local files (e.g., h:\myfiles\myfile.bmp). See also Running Experiments Over a Network for details on how to run an entire experiment from another machine.

** It's generally not a good idea to place two DirectRT sessions directly back to back in your experiment because each DirectRT session requires a few seconds for one session to end and the next to begin.  Instead, try separating the sessions with a simple instruction screen of some type.