helping with programming esp. randomization

[rfreyberg]

I think it's just with the experiment in its completed form. When I even did a sample run with far fewer videos loaded, I never had a delay. I'm only using media lab for the study - coordinating videos with the questions.

The last thing they do is to complete a questionnaire after a video clip and then they get a thank you screen - there's a skip that takes them from the last questionnaire to the thank you screen.

[rfreyberg]

I seemed to have stumbled upon another problem at the end today. The running of the actual experiment is fine - as usual.

Today, the problem seems to be with the skip. The participants got to the skip - but then it was supposed to go to the end - where they get a thank you screen. Today, the skip worked but then the program just closed - they didn't get the thank you screen and they didn't get the popup that says "please tell the experimenter that you are done" that's built into the system.

The only thing that I changed today was that I moved the skip earlier because the study was just too long. I've attached one of the questionnaire files and the experiment file so that you can take a look.

Sadly, when I open up the data folder, nothing is there which makes me think that I'm losing participants for today.

Please get back to me as soon as you can - otherwise, I'm afraid that I'm losing data.

[rfreyberg]

Today, I've played around with a bunch of things - and I still can't get the skip to the end to work right. The skip works - but then it won't go to my final thank you screen - the whole program just closes (as if I did control-alt-delete).

It doesn't matter where I place the skip - the program closes even if I put the skip after the first set of videos. The same thing will happen - it will go to the skip but won't go to my thank you screen and the program closes and I don't get the popup saying that they should tell the experimenter that they are finished.

I don't understand why this is happening given that the only thing that I changed is the placement of the skip. Does the skip need to be closer to the end for it to work? That seems a little odd.

Is my data still saved somewhere?

Also, the sample experiment works fine so it's not the program as a whole...and as I mentioned, the experiment works right up until that point - there just seems to be a problem between it connecting from the skip to the end screen.

Thanks!

[jarvis24]

Let's try this. Right now you have 36 blocks. Make a copy and delete the last 26 blocks so that you have only 10. Run it and see if you have the same issue. If so, cut out another 5 and another 2 and so on until to see if you can get the same effect with just oine or two blocks. If so, then start deleting as many items within the blocks as you can so that the structure and skipping remain in tact but you have a bar minimum/skeleton version to problem solve with. If you can get the "minimalist" version of your que file to produce the problem, I'll go over it in detail to find where the problem might be coming from. Does that make sense?

[rfreyberg]

Thanks for getting back to me - especially with Thanksgiving right around the corner.

So, I tried what you suggested. I just moved the skip after only 1 set of videos so that I wouldn't have to sit through 30+ minutes of videos.

Anyway, with only 10 blocks, I did get the thank you screen but then the screen went blank and no popup at the end occurred. I had to do a control-alt-delete to get out of the program. This is reminiscent of what was happening before when I had the skip after 25 blocks whereas for the study now it is after 15. At least it did not close out the program before the thank you screen.

So, then I tried it with 8 blocks, I got the thank you screen - it stalled for a little bit but then the popup finally occurred.

I'm attaching both questionnaire files so that you can take a look. The test1 file has 10 blocks - the test2 has 8.

Now what do you suggest?

[rfreyberg]

Also, can you please tell me if there's a way to retrieve my data? It doesn't seem like the data saves if the participants don't get the thank you popup, but I feel like the data should be in there somewhere.

[jarvis24]

If you ctrl-alt-del before you see the final thank you pop-up, then MediaLab will not write the data because that is the point at which the data are saved.

If it works with 8 block but not 10--and that there is a long delay after 8, then I would be curious to know if 10 would work if given more time (e.g., go to lunch and come back kind of thing--again just curious). I have heard of delays happening after sessions (before the data are written) and I have some recollection that many videos have been involved in those cases. If so, it may be some kind of memory issue since videos can take up a lot of memory.

If you want to burn your experiment to a CD and send it to us, I'll try running it here and see if I can tell what's going on. In the mean time you could also send me a dxdiag.txt file so I can check out your system specs and see if there is anything unusual about your computer setup.

See http://www.empirisoft.com/Support/showthread.php?t=75 for details on how to generate that file.