Making custom instructions and items appearing twice

[jarvis24]

Glad to hear the data are ok now.

That's a really handy tip regarding the continue button, thanks Rene. I think many users would find it helpful to be able to create custom items that do not require the collection of any data (i.e., for instruction screens and such).

Am I correct though that you could do the same thing with an HTML item rather than a custom item? But that the advantage of using a custom item is that you can have greater control over the method of continuation? e.g., having the button contained within the HTML itself rather than at the bottom right of the MediaLab screen? And perhaps you could also add some validation events that MediaLab couldn't normally check. Intersting possibilities!

Would you mind posting a revised version of your folder in case other users might want to check out how you did it?

[Rene Kopietz]

[edited by moderator]

Attached you'll find our final version of the experiment. As for the background: it's a German version of the Saying-is-believing paradigm. We chose the custom item solution, because we wanted to make it more realistically. Everyone knows the internet and using it should add to the experimental reality of our experiment.

Our problem is that not all of the custom data are written to the data file. The ones that are missing are: aom1 thru 6, target1 thru 5, audi1 and 3 and ease. This is really strange, because these items mostly use the same custom item file named "scales8". It uses the ml.varname functionality. The custom item code seems work for all but a few variables. I can't see any difference between items that are (vs. are not) recorded.

Update August 6, 2007:

It seems we have found a solution. After renaming the problematic variables ML writes them correctly into the data file. Any idea why that happened?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Best
Rene

PS: I'm goint to programm an English example questionnaire using our custom item and instruction method soon.

[jarvis24]

Yes, turns out there was a bug in the new feature which allows for long variable names. On the problematic items, there were spaces at the end of your variable names. Long story short, that's what was causing the problem. So a quick fix is to make sure there are no embedded spaces at the end of your variable names but I've also fixed this in the code so that it will not be a problem in the next version.

[ecl05002]

Hi,
I was just curious if an English version of this questionnaire was ever created or posted. It sounds great and I'd like to utilize the chat room simulation aspect.
Thanks.

[jarvis24]

I've emailed Rene to see if he might be able to help.