repeat

Experiments Surveys & forms

repeat duplicates a trial-file row N times before the experiment starts. Use it to present the same trial multiple times without copy-pasting rows. The duplication is done once, each time the experiment loads; during the experiment itself the column has no further effect beyond its value being saved to results like any other column.

Syntax

Put the number of times the row should appear in the cell: 3 presents that trial three times.

The copies stay together, one after another, in the position the row occupies in the file. Leave the cell empty on rows that should appear once.

Options

Value	Effect
empty cell	Row appears once.
positive integer N	Row appears N times, consecutively. 1 changes nothing.
0, negative number	The row is REMOVED from the experiment.
text that is not a number (x, abc)	Counts as 0: row REMOVED.
decimal (2.9)	Truncated: 2 copies.
number with trailing text (3x)	The leading digits are used: 3 copies.

Defaults & missing values

• With no repeat column, or with the cell left blank, the row appears once.
• Unlike most columns, a placeholder word is not a safe way to say “no value” here: anything that is not a positive number counts as zero and removes the row. Leave the cell empty instead.
• The editor preview never duplicates rows: it shows each row once whatever repeat says, while the live experiment shows all the copies.

Works with

• Results row numbering: the first copy keeps the plain trial-file row number, and later copies get an -rK suffix, so the results show row numbers like 5, 5-r2, 5-r3. With wildcard lists the row number also carries the list row picked for each list, giving values like 5-r2-3.
• Wildcards / stimFormat=list: each copy expands the row’s lists on its own, so different copies can draw different stimuli.
• if/then numeric jumps: a numeric then target refers to the row number in your file and lands on the first copy of that row.
• block/rules: repeated rows multiply the trials inside their block, and a rules cell on a repeated row is applied once per copy; keep rules off repeated rows.
• random/randomBlock: copies sit next to each other in the base order; use the randomization columns if the repetitions must be spread out.
• Results: repeat is saved with every output row like any other column, so its value is visible in the downloaded results.

Examples

Repeat one stimulus 3 times, others once:

type	stimFormat	stim1	presTime	repeat
test	.jpg	target	500	3
test	.jpg	filler	500

Expanded order: target, target, target, filler. Result rowNo values: 2, 2-r2, 2-r3, 3.

Repeat plus shuffling so copies are not back-to-back:

type	stimFormat	stim1	repeat	random
test	.jpg	a	2	1
test	.jpg	b	2	1
test	.jpg	c		1

Five trials (a,a,b,b,c) shuffled together by random.

Tips & gotchas

Caution

repeat=0, a negative value, or any text that is not a number silently deletes the row from the experiment. Nothing warns you, so leave the cell empty rather than writing a placeholder in it.

• The editor preview never duplicates rows, so its trial count is lower than the live experiment’s whenever repeat is used.
• The copies are created before anything else, so every later count (blocks, rules, staircase and trial-logic tables, dynamic list metadata) sees the duplicated rows rather than the rows as written in the file.