My experiment is a loss aversion task. There are 140 trials and for each one, the participant must choose between a guaranteed amount or take a 50/50 bet. If they take the bet, the program must determine whether they "won" or "lost" the bet. Over the course of the task, there is a running total shown on the screen such that people sensitive to losses would really see that they occasionally lose bets (if they choose to take any of them).
There are 2 types of trials: "gambles" and "gain only". In "gambles" trials, participants must choose between a positive/negative bet or a certain/guaranteed zero. In "gain only" trials, participants must choose between a positive/zero bet or a certain/guaranteed small positive amount (i.e., smaller than the positive amount within the bet). Participants can respond "A" to take the bet or "L" to take the guaranteed amount. Everything about *presenting* the stimuli is working.
For each trial, the data file contains values for what the "win", "loss" and "certain/guaranteed" amounts are. The problem is that these values the first two trials are always recorded wrong and they are always recorded as win$2/lose$0.5/certain$0 and win$2/lose$0/certain$1 no matter what was presented on screen. The data rows for trials 3, 4, and 5, show the correct values for trials 1, 2, and 3 so it somewhat seems like things get shifted downwards. The actual values for trials 139 and 140 get "cut off" because there are only 140 trials in the experiment. Despite this values problem, all 140 participant responses are correctly recorded in their appropriate data rows.
As it happens, "win$2/lose$0.5/certain$0" coincides with the first item listed for the "win", "loss" and "certain" items (respectively) for the "gambles" type of trials. Similarly, "win$2/lose$0/certain$1" coincides with the first item listed for the "win", "loss" and "certain" items (respectively) for the "gain only" type of trials. Furthermore, the actual trials with those combinations do appear later in the experiment so it's not like they are skipped.
What might be going on with my experiment? Any and all assistance is greatly appreciated.