Setting an overall time limit for an input file

Hi all! This is my first post here and I wasn't sure whether to post in the Medialab or DirectRT forums, because my question involves both.

I'm programming a digit comparison task in DirectRT that's going to be integrated into a questionnaire in Medialab. The task asks participants to decide whether 2 sequences of digits are identical. I've programmed the task in DirectRT, and there will be 3 "sections" of the task, each with their own DirectRT input file that is called by Medialab. The 3 sections are separated by Medialab instruction screens. But the part I'm stuck on is figuring out how to set an overall time limit for each section of the DirectRT input file, so that participants only have 30 seconds to complete as many comparison trials as they can before it automatically moves on to the next Medialab instruction screen.

I'm still very new to Medialab and DirectRT, so I hope that makes sense. Thanks in advance for any help!

I should mention, I've tried assigning a parametre of (d30) to the DirectRT task from within Medialab, but that doesn't seem to work; the task continues past the 30 second mark without skipping ahead to the next instruction screen.

Hi kclev,

Welcome to the forums! You seem to have good instincts, because your question about timing is most directly relevant to the DirectRT files you create. To control the timing of DirectRT tasks, you should use the functions associated with DirectRT. As you found out, the d30 parameter didn't affect the DirectRT task because it only controls presentation of files MediaLab uses. Once the DirectRT items in MediaLab started, the control of the DirectRT tasks moved to DirectRT.

If each of your input files only has one row, I would go to the Styles file and use a MinMax value of 0-30000 (the timing is in milliseconds). People will then have 30 seconds to do that task before DirectRT ends the it. If each of your input files has more than one row for the task, you could also use the Meta! feature. Check out the Other Features > Meta Commands section of the DirectRT manual for more information.

Cheers!

Jason

That worked perfectly! HUGE thanks for the help Jason. We were hoping to have this experiment up and running by the end of the day today, and there's no way I could have done it without your help.

Cheers,
Kyle