Dear Supreme Beings of Inquisit:
I encountered a bizarre situation with randomization in Inquisit Web 4 and well as Inquisit Web 5 on a certain windows 7 computer (it works fine for all other computers we've tried).
I wrote a script to randomly present <picture> outside of the screen with "/ resetinterval=0", then I used an <image> element to reference that picture on a surveypage. Specifically, two pictures will be presented on each surveypage, and they are drawn from two DIFFERENT pools of jpg.
This procedure works perfectly on other computers, the randomization works, and the left and right hand side pictures are different from one another (see below).
However, on a certain windows computer in the office, they are always the SAME (see below).
This is theoretically impossible given the script (attached at the end), as the left and right hand side pictures clearly come from different pools.
Below is the spec of that Windows computer. We have tried Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and the results are always the same. We have also tried different versions of Web Inquisit and this always happen on that particular computer. This is really puzzling and holding our lab back, please help & Many thanks!
###Here is the script###
###Radiobutton###
<radiobuttons paired1>
/ fontstyle = ("Verdana", 2%)
/ caption=""
/ options=("Vote for the candidate on the left ","Vote for the candidate on the right")
/ optionvalues = ("1", "2")
/ orientation = horizontal
/ position = (0,93)
/ required=true
</radiobuttons>
###Picture/Image Set 1###
<item pairs30_40_F_1>
/ 1 = "ND_F_D_Oversen.jpg"
/ 2 = "PA_F_R_Toohil.jpg"
/ 3 = "MI_F_R_LaFontaine.jpg"
/ 4 = "MI_F_D_Guerra.jpg"
/ 5 = "VA_F_R_Ransone.jpg"
</item>
<picture pairs30_40_f_l_pic>
/ position = (-20%, -20%)
/ size = (100px,100px)
/ items = pairs30_40_F_1
/ resetinterval=0
</picture>
<image pairs30_40_f_l>
/items = ("<%picture.pairs30_40_f_l_pic.currentitem%>")
/position = (25,10)
/imagesize = (30%,30%)
</image>
###Picture Image Set 2###
<item pairs40_50_F_2>
/ 1 = "WY_F_R_Petroff.jpg"
/ 2 = "OH_F_D_TAYLOR.jpg"
/ 3 = "MI_F_R_Cox.jpg"
/ 4 = "VA_F_D_Hampton.jpg"
/ 5 = "FA_F_R_Ward.jpg"
/ 6 = "PA_F_D_Delissio.jpg"
</item>
<picture pairs40_50_f_r_pic>
/ position = (-20%, -20%)
/ size = (100px,100px)
/ items = pairs40_50_F_2
/ resetinterval=0
</picture>
<image pairs40_50_f_r>
/ items = ("<%picture.pairs40_50_f_r_pic.currentitem%>")
/ position = (75, 10)
/imagesize = (30%,30%)
</image>
###Survey and Surveypage
<surveypage f_3040_4050_1>
/ stimulusframes = [1= noreplacenorepeat(pairs30_40_f_l_pic);2= noreplacenorepeat(pairs40_50_f_r_pic); 3= noreplacenorepeat(femalenames_right_cap); 4 = noreplacenorepeat(femalenames_left_cap); 5 = noreplacenorepeat(address_left_cap); 6 = noreplacenorepeat(address_right_cap); 7= noreplacenorepeat(occupation_right_cap); 8 = noreplacenorepeat(occupation_left_cap); 9 = noreplacenorepeat(statement_left_cap);10 = noreplacenorepeat(statement_right_cap)]
/ caption = ""
/ fontstyle = ("Verdana", -16, true, false, false, false, 5, 0)
/ questions = [1=paired1; 2 = pairs30_40_f_l; 3 = pairs40_50_f_r;4=femalenames_right;5=femalenames_left;6=address_left;7=address_right;8=occupation_right;9=statement_left;10=statement_right;11=occupation_left]
/ nextbuttonposition = (93, 93)
/ finishlabel = "Next"
/ showpagenumbers = false
/ showquestionnumbers = false
</surveypage>
<survey survey>
/ pages = [1-20=noreplacenorepeat(
f_3040_4050_1,f_3040_4050_2,f_3040_4050_3,f_3040_4050_4,f_3040_4050_5,
f_4050_3040_1,f_4050_3040_2,f_4050_3040_3,f_4050_3040_4,f_4050_3040_5,
m_3040_4050_1,m_3040_4050_2,m_3040_4050_3,m_3040_4050_4,m_3040_4050_5,
m_4050_3040_1,m_4050_3040_2,m_4050_3040_3,m_4050_3040_4,m_4050_3040_5)]
/ showbackbutton = false
/ responsefontstyle = ("Verdana", 2.5%, false, false, false, false, 5, 0)
/ itemfontstyle = ("Verdana", 2.5%, false, false, false, false, 5, 0)
/ nextbuttonposition = (80%,90%)
/ itemspacing = 1%
/ screencolor = white
/ finishlabel = "Next"
</survey>
##########################
UPDATE: Jan 8th, 2018
##########################
After quite a lot of testing, we found that whatever picture assigned to "2=" in the "/questions" section in the survey page get repeated 2 times (i.e. appear on both sides of the screen)!! Again this does not happen on any other computer, including other Windows 7 computers that run Chrome. Any thoughts on why this is happening?
<surveypage f_3040_4050_1>
/ stimulusframes = [1= noreplacenorepeat(pairs30_40_f_l_pic);2= noreplacenorepeat(pairs40_50_f_r_pic); 3= noreplacenorepeat(femalenames_right_cap); 4 = noreplacenorepeat(femalenames_left_cap); 5 = noreplacenorepeat(address_left_cap); 6 = noreplacenorepeat(address_right_cap); 7= noreplacenorepeat(occupation_right_cap); 8 = noreplacenorepeat(occupation_left_cap); 9 = noreplacenorepeat(statement_left_cap);10 = noreplacenorepeat(statement_right_cap)]
/ caption = ""
/ fontstyle = ("Verdana", -16, true, false, false, false, 5, 0)
/ questions = [1=paired1;
2 = pairs30_40_f_l; 3 = pairs40_50_f_r;4=femalenames_right;5=femalenames_left;6=address_left;7=address_right;8=occupation_right;9=statement_left;10=statement_right;11=occupation_left]
/ nextbuttonposition = (93, 93)
/ finishlabel = "Next"
/ showpagenumbers = false
/ showquestionnumbers = false
</surveypage>