Defining a minimum time before continue button can be clicked

I'm trying to program an essay question so that the Continue button doesn't appear for 5 minutes; I'd like people to write a story for that long.

I've put the (d-300) parameter in the Essay question parameter box, but the timer is not working. The continue button never shows up.

Strangely, I have exactly the same parameter in an instruction question, which is the next question - and it works perfectly. Also note that I'm recording RTs for both questions.

So - why is the duration not working for the essay question? Are you not allowed to have two in a row? Does it not actually work for essay questions?
Has anyone else experienced this before?

Any suggestions would be great! I'm going to run the study Thursday!
:)

Never mind, I see now in the help that negative durations are only allowed for instruction screens.

Anybody have any thoughts on how to keep them writing for a certain length of time, then?

Try the custom item sample that I've attached below and see if it does what you need. I created a java function that makes the Continue button appear after a specified number of milliseconds. In this case, 10000 (i.e., 10 seconds). It will use the question wording and variable name that you specify in your questionnaire. Let me know if you have any trouble with it.

So glad I found this. I'm just learning how flexible MediaLab is with the "custom" option with HTML and Javascript.

Cheers.