Millisecond Forums

Problems getting random selection

https://forums.millisecond.com/Topic12332.aspx

By mckay - 2/14/2014

I am trying to implement an experiment in which I have 16 different page of stimuli. I want the pages to be presented to each subject in a randomly selected order and for each page to only show up once. This is what I've written into my script but whenever I run the script it keeps re-using pages, meaning not all of them get shown and some get shown more than once. Can someone help me understand what I've done wrong here?

<survey WCT>
/pages = [1-16=noreplace(WCT1, WCT2, WCT3, WCT4, WCT5, WCT6, WCT7, WCT8, WCT9, WCT10, WCT11, WCT12, WCT13, WCT14, WCT15, WCT16)]
</survey>
By Dave - 2/14/2014

Your syntax is fine. Something else must be going on here. First Q: Is your Inquisit installation up to date?
By mckay - 2/15/2014

Yes I believe so. I just updated it about two weeks ago and I'm using 4.0.4.0...
By Dave - 2/15/2014

Alright, thanks. Moving on then:

(a) Are you seeing this on OSX, Windows or both?
(b) Are you seeing any repeats when running a completely stripped-down script replicating your page selection logic such as

<survey mysurvey>
/ pages = [1-4 = noreplace(a,b,c,d)]
/ showbackbutton = false
</survey>

<surveypage a>
/ caption = "A"
</surveypage>

<surveypage b>
/ caption = "B"
</surveypage>

<surveypage c>
/ caption = "C"
</surveypage>

<surveypage d>
/ caption = "D"
</surveypage>

? For the record: I'm not seeing any repeats -- each page is run exactly once.
(c) If the answer to (b) above is no, it stands to reason that some other factor particular to your script is involved. Please provide the full script by attaching it to this thread.
By mckay - 2/15/2014

Just tried your sample script and worked fine--random selection and no repeats. I am using OSX, haven't tried it on a Windows system.

Attaching the script here. It's a modification of the Sentence Completion Task that is available in the Inquisit Library.

Thank you for all your help!
By Dave - 2/15/2014

I doubt your script is actually repeating pages. Instead you may get the impression because of mistakes in the script. For example,

<surveypage WCT13>
/caption = "Word Completion Task"
/fontstyle = ("Arial", 3%, false, false, false, false, 5, 1)
/questions = [1 = stem5]
/itemspacing = 3%
/itemfontstyle = ("Arial", 2%, false, false, false, false, 5, 1)

/ontrialend = [values.response_stem13 = textbox.stem13.response]

/showpagenumbers = false
</surveypage>

ostensibly displays the wrong stem question.
By mckay - 2/15/2014

Aha...errors with copy-pasting. Thank you so much! I'll tend to those mistakes