Using multiple responses.xls files possible? (case 437)

Hi,

in MediaLab v2010, I have programmed a game where participants can "buy" products, and they get a small reward upon making specific (preprogrammed) choices. Participants should also be able to see how much money they have left and how much rewards they received. To do this, I created a responses.xls file, which works nicely.

However, the problem: The price of the products participants buy, and the products for which they receive a reward, differs between conditions.
Thus: If in e.g., condition 1 the variable "choi1" (the first choice) gets the response "4" by a participant, then the money counter should e.g., distract 40 cents. In condition 2, this should be not 40 but e.g., 50 cents.
In total, participants make 50 of these choices.

I think the easiest solution would be to create multiple responses.xls files (e.g., called responses1.xls, responses2.xls, et cetera), and that MediaLab knows which xls. file to search for in every condition.

Does anyone know if this is possible, or knows of another solution?

Thanks very much in advance!

If you were to include the condition the subject was in as a variable in the [I]responses.xls[/I] file--could you use that information in your conditional logic in Excel?

Hmmm, I would not see how, but maybe you know? The problem is, that participants choose 1 out of 5 products each time, and each product has it's own price (and the price/product values are counterbalanced between conditions).

Thus, in responses.xls, I use the following formula as input for the counter of how much money people have left to spend:


=IF(B3=1;(B102-0,40);IF(B3=2;(B102-0,35);IF(B3=3;(B102-0,45);IF(B3=4;(B102-0,40);IF(B3=5;(B102-0,45))))))

Here, "B3" is the cell that collects participants response, and "B102" is the amount of money that was left after their previous choice.

Because in another condition the values that should be distracted are different (e.g., for choice 1 this should be 0,50 rather than 0,40), the entire formula becomes different, for example:

Condition 2:
=IF(B3=1;(B102-0,50);IF(B3=2;(B102-0,30);IF(B3=3;(B102-0,65);IF(B3=4;(B102-0,30);IF(B3=5;(B102-0,65))))))

If I follow your solution and enter "condition" as a variable in responses.xls (e.g., on position "B1"), I still do not see how I could use this to combine the above formulas (because the formulas already contain several IF...-rules). But all help is welcome of course!
Thank you for your help so far!

If you would upload a copy of your MediaLab files, I'd be happy to take a look at them.