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How do I get my items to present in the correct order?

MJenn — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 16:12:26 GMT

Hi All,
I am a complete novice to Inquisit and am completely lost in script building. I have had success in getting my scripts to run, but when I run them the questions are out of order. For several of my scales this doesn't matter, but I am using some surveys that have a question and follow-up questions. Meaning, question 1 and 2 must go in that order and so on. Because my questions are out of order my assessment makes no sense. How do I fix this? Is this fixed in the sequence below?

<text question>
/ items = question
/ select = noreplace
/ position = (50%, 35%)
/ fontstyle = ("Arial", 18pt, false, false, false, false, 5)
</text>

Thanks for any and all help!

RE: How do I get my items to present in the correct order?

MJenn — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 16:12:26 GMT

Ok, that makes perfect sense. Thank you so much!

RE: How do I get my items to present in the correct order?

Dave — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 20:01:45 GMT

The way items are sampled is determined by the setting of the /select attribute.

<text question>
/ items = question
/ select = noreplace
/ position = (50%, 35%)
/ fontstyle = ("Arial", 18pt, false, false, false, false, 5)
</text>

noreplace means you are sampling items *randomly without replacement*.

If you want items to be presented in a specific order, you should use

/ select = sequence

instead.

To illustrate, consider the difference between

#1:
<block myblock>
/ trials = [1-4 = mytrial]
</block>

<trial mytrial>
/ stimulusframes = [1=mytext]
/ validresponse = (57)
</trial>

<text mytext>
/ items = myitems
/ select = noreplace
</text>

<item myitems>
/ 1 = "A"
/ 2 = "B"
/ 3 = "C"
/ 4 = "D"
</item>

which will display the 4 items in random order, vs.

#2:
<block myblock>
/ trials = [1-4 = mytrial]
</block>

<trial mytrial>
/ stimulusframes = [1=mytext]
/ validresponse = (57)
</trial>

<text mytext>
/ items = myitems
/ select = sequence
</text>

<item myitems>
/ 1 = "A"
/ 2 = "B"
/ 3 = "C"
/ 4 = "D"
</item>

which will present them in the given order A, B, C, and D.