Millisecond Forums

Dear Inquisit users,

my experiment counterbalances lists by subject number, for example (I don’t think the details of the experiment are important):

<variables>
/group=(1 of 3) (mwstimsList=mwstims1, questionList=question1)
/group=(2 of 3) (mwstimsList=mwstims2, questionList=question2)
/group=(3 of 3) (mwstimsList=mwstims3, questionList=question3)
</variables>

This experiment will be run on the internet and the problem is that I’ll have (I know it based on experience) many people starting the experiment and then aborting it. For that reason, the number of participants that will complete the experiment in the different lists will be unbalanced, that is, the dropping rate will be larger for one list than another.

How can fix that problem?
An example that could work (but I don’t know if it can be done and how) would be making Inquisit to write in a text file the number of participants that complete the experiment. For example, at the end of the experiment Inquisit opens that file, reads the number, adds one and replaces the number, then saves it. When a new participant starts, Inquisint opens that file, reads the number, and uses that number to assign the participant to the different lists. It’s just an idea.

Do you have any feedback, idea, or example to help me to fix that problem?

Thank you!
Luca