Issue with Duration Parameter

Basically, I'm working to create a filler task in which subjects solve puzzles (presented as bitmaps and answer with a text response), and which lasts for a particular amount of time.

I want the entire task to last 10 minutes, but I don't want to have a limitation on how long they have for each puzzle before they have to respond. In other words, I'd like to set it up so that they answer as many puzzles as they can in 10 minutes.

I tried setting up a duration parameter for the questionnaire in the .exp file. At first, the dialog box that appears and prompts them to press enter to continue was never made visible to the participants because I couldn't get it to appear in front of the bitmaps. For whatever reason, the bitmaps always wanted to be in front.

Using a countdown (d-600) got around this. The countdown clock was never visible, but the the dialog box moved to the front so that it was visible. The problem now is that following the prompt and pressing enter doesn't do anything--the screen just stays right where it is.

Is there a way to get around this? And are bitmaps always in the front, or is there a way to put other things we want to see in front of them?

Can you zip and post a sample with just a few trials so I can see what you are getting?

This should give you some idea of what I'm seeing.

I see. This makes sense I think because you are running your puzzle task with DirectRT which runs independently of MediaLab until the DirectRT session is over. So I guess my first question would be.. if you had to do this task in one program or the other, which would be your preference? I ask because I think you could accomplish it either way but not by using both at the same time (i.e., one for display/response and the other for timing the task).

If I had to choose, I'd say DirectRT. I just like the way it displays better. But I could go either way--it's only a filler task, after all.

It's a filler task within a larger MediaLab experiment? If so, then I would create it within a self-contained .que file and then limit the time they work on that .que file by adding the duration parameter for the .que file to .exp file.