responseRowsRandom

Surveys & forms

Shuffles the display order of the responseRows items of a type=form question. Any non-empty value turns the shuffle on; the rows are shuffled once when the trial’s form is generated.

Use it to counterbalance item order in matrix batteries and repeated-question panels. The displayed order is written to the results as an extra responseRows_actual column.

Syntax

Put 1 in the cell of every form trial whose rows you want shuffled. Any non-empty value works; there is no further parsing.

Options

Value	Effect
empty cell	Rows shown in responseRows order
any other value (1, 0, yes…)	Rows shuffled once when the trial’s form is generated

0 does NOT mean off; only an empty cell disables the shuffle.

Defaults & missing values

• If the column is missing or the cell is left empty, rows appear in their responseRows order and the responseRows_actual results column records no order for that trial.
• When set, the shuffle happens once per trial row, independently for each participant.
• In practice the responseRows_actual column appears in every results file that has at least one saved trial: form trials with shuffled rows record the displayed order joined with ;; all other trials record no order.

Works with

• responseRows: the only thing shuffled. Matrix questions show their rows in the shuffled order; the repeated-question panel renders one question per row in the shuffled order. Without responseRows there is nothing to shuffle (see Tips & gotchas).
• responseType: effective wherever rows are effective: matrix radio/checkboxes and the per-row panel for dropdown, slider, box, comment, likert, rank, stars.
• responseOptionsRandom: independent; options and rows can each be shuffled.
• Non-form trials: no effect at all; the multi-slider rows on type=test trials always appear in trial-file order.
• JSON forms (form column set): rows are never randomized there, and responseRows_actual records no order.

Note

Saved responses are NOT unscrambled: per-row responses are saved in the displayed (shuffled) order. To reconstruct which response belongs to which item, match positionally against the responseRows_actual value (the displayed order, ;-joined). This positional match is reliable in current results; results collected on much older versions of the platform could misattribute rows when answers were given out of order or skipped.

Examples

Counterbalanced matrix battery:

type	head	responseType	responseOptions	responseRows	responseRowsRandom
form	How often do you...	radio	Never;Sometimes;Often	Sleep well;Exercise;Eat healthy	1

Rows appear in a random order; the results row gets e.g. responseRows_actual = Exercise;Sleep well;Eat healthy.

Randomized per-row sliders in a form:

type	head	responseType	responseOptions	responseRows	responseRowsRandom
form	Rate each dimension	slider	0_100	Valence;Arousal;Dominance	1

Three slider questions rendered in shuffled order (panel layout).

Tips & gotchas

Caution

Any non-empty value randomizes, including 0. If you keep an on/off column in your trial file, leave the “off” cells genuinely empty.

• Setting it without responseRows records an empty responseRows_actual value for that trial.
• responseRows_actual appears in the results file even when nothing was ever randomized.

Common combinations

responseRowsRandom appears in these worked recipes:

• Matrix question battery: Ask one set of items on a shared rating scale as a single matrix question, with the item order randomised per participant.