Using multiple experiment files for one study

I am using MediaLaba and DirectRT to conduct a study. The first part of the study is pretty basic, and involves completing some surveys. I have created a responses.xls file and a report (which will be used to administer negative feedback to the participant). I have set responses.xls to print a report that contains both real results and fake results. To make this manipulation beleivable I am printing the report on a printer located next to the participant and want it to print immediately after they complete the surveys. This places me in a position with MediaLab that I am unfamiliar with, and have a few questions about what to expect.

1: It is my understanding (based on the documentation) that you can only print reports from the responses.xls once an experiment file has been run through completely. I would really appreciate some feedback if there is a workaround for this.

2: Assuming that I must use two separate experiments in MediaLab to accomplish this (one before printing and one after for the next section), are there any conflicts that I should look out for? For example, if I house both experiment files in the same directory, they will both be using the same responses.xls, data files, etc. Will this be a problem (aside from printing the report twice)? I don't need to share responses data (using responses.xls variables) across the two sections.

3. Would it be possible to configure an autostart.txt file to automatically load the second session once the first session has been completed? How would I accomplish this.


Thank you very much for your help. I absolutely love using MediaLab.

As far as I know you have all your facts correct. I do not think you would run into any trouble having the two experiment files in the same folder--just make sure they have different names and that they do not contain any of the same questionnaires located within that folder. Even then I do not see a big potential for conflict. If the second one does not require a responses.xls file, then even better, but if it does, then yes it will use the same file and that is ok. Just be prepared in knowing that the report file--I think--will be overwritten if you use the same subject ID for both experiments. As far as running these in a batch--try doing a search on "batch" here in the support forums--I expect you will find what you are looking for.