Hi all,

I am hoping I am just missing something small here. I have a study I plan to post to the web with a stagaring 32 conditions. I have written <exp> and <variables> files defining what I want to happen for different participants. Not all participants will have the same number of blocks (I pasted a short version below).

What happens when I am practicing with the deskop edition and I enter a subject number of "2", I can't and I get an error looking for block35. For participants in this condition (so 2, 34, etc.) there are only 34 blocks. When try to enter subject "4", I get an error that it is looking for block 31. If I have a condition that has the maximum number of blocks across all conditions (which is 35), those subject numbers seem fine.

My question is: can you have <exp> for different subjects that have different quanities of blocks? If so, does this need to be specified in the <exp> or elsewhere? If not, should I create some kind of dummy block so that each of my <exp> will have 35 blocks?

Thanks,

Susan

expt>

/ subjects = (1 of 32)

/ blocks = [1=block1; 2=block2; 3=block3; 4=block4; 5=block5; 6=block6; 7=block7; 8=block8; 9=block9; 10=block10;

11=block11; 12=block12; 13=block13; 14=block14; 15=block15; 16=block16; 17=block17; 18=block18;

19=block19; 20=block20; 21=block21; 22=block22; 23=block23; 24=block24; 25=block25; 26=block26;

27=block27; 28=block28; 29=block29; 30=block30; 31=block31; 32=block32; 33=block33; 34=block34;

35=block35]

/ onexptbegin = [values.condition=1]

</expt>

/ subjects = (2 of 32)

/ blocks = [1=block1; 2=block2; 3=block3; 4=block4; 5=block5; 6=block6; 7=block7; 8=block8; 9=block9; 10=block10;

11=block11; 12=block12; 13=block13; 14=block14; 15=block15; 16=block16; 17=block17; 18=block18;

19=block19; 20=block20; 21=block21; 22=block22; 23=block23; 24=block24; 25=block25; 26=block26;

27=block27; 28=block28; 29=block29; 30=block30; 31=block31; 32=block32; 33=block33; 34=block34;

35=block35]

/ onexptbegin = [values.condition=2]

</expt>

/ subjects = (3 of 32)

/ blocks = [1=block1; 2=block2; 3=block3; 4=block4; 5=block5; 6=block6; 7=block7; 8=block8; 9=block9; 10=block10;

11=block11; 12=block12; 13=block13; 14=block14; 15=block15; 16=block16; 17=block17; 18=block18;

19=block19; 20=block20; 21=block21; 22=block22; 23=block23; 24=block24; 25=block25; 26=block26;

27=block27; 28=block28; 29=block29; 30=block30; 31=block31; 32=block32; 33=block33; 34=block34]

/ onexptbegin = [values.condition=3]

</expt>

/ subjects = (4 of 32)

/ blocks = [1=block1; 2=block2; 3=block3; 4=block4; 5=block5; 6=block6; 7=block7; 8=block8; 9=block9; 10=block10;

11=block11; 12=block12; 13=block13; 14=block14; 15=block15; 16=block16; 17=block17; 18=block18;

19=block19; 20=block20; 21=block21; 22=block22; 23=block23; 24=block24; 25=block25; 26=block26;

27=block27; 28=block28; 29=block29; 30=block30]

/ onexptbegin = [values.condition=4]

</expt>

<variables >

/ group = (1 of 32) (block1=Matching; block2=HealthA; block3=GeneralHealth; block4=Att_HIV; block5=Bike_Own;

block6=Bike_Riding; block7=Distance_block;block8=Travel_Conv_Grocery;block9=Travel_Coffee; block10=Travel_Bank_Credit;

block11=Travel_Pharm_Drug; block12=Travel_Job_School; block13=Travel_Park; block14=Future_Biking1;

block15=target_congruent_practiceA; block16=attribute_practice; block17=congruent_practice_1A;

block18=congruent_critical_2A; block19= target_congruent_to_incongruent_practice_switchA;

block20=incongruent_practice_1A;block21=incongruent_critical_2A;

block22=e_target_congruent_practice; block23=e_attributepractice; block24=e_congruent_practice;

block25=e_congruent_critical; block26=e_target_congruent_to_incongruent_practice_switch;

block27=e_incongruent_practice; block28=e_incongruent_critical;

block29=HIV_Summary; block30=HIV_Cog_Diss_inconsistent; block31=HIV_Cog_Diss_consistent; block32=No_Enviro_Cog_Diss;

block33=compensation; block34=money_payment; block35=Final_Summary_B)

/ group = (2 of 32) (block1=Matching; block2=HealthA; block3=GeneralHealth; block4=Att_HIV; block5=Bike_Own;

block6=Bike_Riding; block7=Distance_block;block8=Travel_Conv_Grocery;block9=Travel_Coffee; block10=Travel_Bank_Credit;

block11=Travel_Pharm_Drug; block12=Travel_Job_School; block13=Travel_Park; block14=Future_Biking1;

block15=target_congruent_practiceA; block16=attribute_practice; block17=congruent_practice_1A;

block18=congruent_critical_2A; block19= target_congruent_to_incongruent_practice_switchA;

block20=incongruent_practice_1A;block21=incongruent_critical_2A;

block22=e_target_congruent_practice; block23=e_attributepractice; block24=e_congruent_practice;

block25=e_congruent_critical; block26=e_target_congruent_to_incongruent_practice_switch;

block27=e_incongruent_practice; block28=e_incongruent_critical;

block29=Enviro_Summary; block30=Enviro_Cog_Diss_inconsistent; block31=Enviro_Cog_Diss_consistent; block32=No_HIV_Cog_Diss;

block33=compensation; block34=money_payment; block35=Final_Summary_B)

/ group = (3 of 32) (block1=Matching; block2=HealthA; block3=GeneralHealth; block4=Att_HIV; block5=Bike_Own;

block6=Bike_Riding; block7=Distance_block;block8=Travel_Conv_Grocery;block9=Travel_Coffee; block10=Travel_Bank_Credit;

block11=Travel_Pharm_Drug; block12=Travel_Job_School; block13=Travel_Park; block14=Future_Biking1;

block15=target_congruent_practiceA; block16=attribute_practice; block17=congruent_practice_1A;

block18=congruent_critical_2A; block19= target_congruent_to_incongruent_practice_switchA;

block20=incongruent_practice_1A;block21=incongruent_critical_2A;

block22=e_target_congruent_practice; block23=e_attributepractice; block24=e_congruent_practice;

block25=e_congruent_critical; block26=e_target_congruent_to_incongruent_practice_switch;

block27=e_incongruent_practice; block28=e_incongruent_critical;

block29=No_Summary; block30=No_HIV_Cog_Diss; block31=No_Enviro_Cog_Diss;block32=compensation;

block33=money_payment; block34=Final_Summary_B)

/ group = (4 of 32) (block1=Matching; block2=HealthA; block3=GeneralHealth; block4=Att_HIV; block5=Bike_Own;

block6=Bike_Riding; block7=Distance_block;block8=Travel_Conv_Grocery;block9=Travel_Coffee; block10=Travel_Bank_Credit;

block11=Travel_Pharm_Drug; block12=Travel_Job_School; block13=Travel_Park; block14=Future_Biking1;

block15=target_congruent_practiceA; block16=attribute_practice; block17=congruent_practice_1A;

block18=congruent_critical_2A; block19= target_congruent_to_incongruent_practice_switchA;

block20=incongruent_practice_1A;block21=incongruent_critical_2A;

block22=covertattentionpractice; block23=covertattention;

block24=HIV_Summary; block25=HIV_Cog_Diss_inconsistent; block26=HIV_Cog_Diss_consistent; block27=No_Enviro_Cog_Diss;

block28=compensation; block29=money_payment; block30=Final_Summary_A)

...... (continues on through 32 of 32)

</variables>

Okay, I did notice one problem. Apparently, I <expt> </expt> only the first experiment! The others did not have the correct tag to begin (i.e., no <expt>, but had an </expt>.

If this solves the problem I will remove the post

Hi Pez,

No need to remove the post, as others might still benefit from it as they troubleshoot similar problems.

There is one other potential issue here (unrelated to your original issue). In your /subjects commands, you indicate there are 32 different conditions, however, you've only defined <expt> elements for conditions 1 and 2. That means if someone has an subject id of "3" or "4" or "36", none of the <expt> elements will apply so Inquisit won't run anything.

If you simply haven't gotten around to defining them yet, no worries, but I thought it would be worth pointing out if there was some misunderstanding about how the /subjects feature works.

-Sean

Just a quick update: Adding "dummy" blocks does solve the problem. In other words, if I can get all 32 groups to have experiments with the same number of blocks, all runs well.

But this doesn't seem to be a very elegant solution. I'd be interested to hear what others have to say on the subject.

Thanks,

Susan

Thanks, Sean, we didn't have the <expt> set up correctly but do now!