arena_advance

Experiments

arena_advance controls how a participant is marked “ready for the next trial” after a multiplayer trial ends: automatically after a fixed pause (milliseconds), or manually via a button. Put it on the trial whose aftermath you want to control: the value is read from the trial that just finished.

Only consulted for multiplayer trials (rows where arena is filled in).

Syntax

Put the number of milliseconds to pause after the trial in the cell, or write manual to let each participant click a button when they are ready:

arena_advance
5000

Options

Value	Effect
number > 0 (5000, 5000ms, 5000.7 all read as 5000)	After the trial, “Waiting for other participants” is shown and the participant is automatically marked ready after that many milliseconds. When everyone has answered, a visible countdown in seconds runs, with message “Everyone responded. Responses will be on the screen for N seconds” (or ”…Experiment will advance in N seconds” when the trial’s arena shows no response spaces (participants/data/log) or the trial’s responseType is clicks)
manual	A “ready for next trial” button is shown; the participant advances only after clicking it. Also re-shown when everyone answered (hiding the waiting message). Clicking hands off to chat-before (next trial) or chat-after (previous trial) flows when those tokens are present
empty / absent / anything not matching the above (not a positive number and not manual)	Default: the participant is marked ready immediately, showing “Waiting for other participants” until the others are ready

There are no all / any / majority / participant-count values.

Defaults & missing values

• When the column is absent or the cell is left empty, the participant is marked ready immediately and sees “Waiting for other participants” until everyone else is ready.
• Readiness has a double role: arena_advance only delays when this participant is marked ready; the next trial still starts only when the arena_sequence condition for it is met.

Works with

• arena is required; without it the trial never enters the multiplayer flow and arena_advance is ignored.
• arena_responses: a millisecond value pairs naturally with arena_responses set to end: responses are revealed once everyone has answered, then stay on screen for the countdown before advancing.
• chat_after (in arena of the finished trial): with manual, clicking the ready button leads into the after-trial chat; without manual, the chat opens on its own.
• chat_before (in arena of the next trial): with manual, clicking the ready button leads into the pre-trial chat.
• The countdown only starts once everyone has answered the current trial; with manual, the ready button reappears at that point in place of the waiting message.

Examples

Show everyone’s responses for 5 seconds after all have answered, then move on automatically:

type	stim1	stimFormat	responseOptions	arena	arena_responses	arena_advance
test	Choose	word	A;B	participants;data	end	5000

Let each participant decide when they are ready to continue:

type	stim1	stimFormat	responseOptions	arena	arena_advance
test	Discuss and answer	word	yes;no	participants;chat	manual

Tips & gotchas

• Milliseconds in, seconds out: the cell value is a wait in milliseconds, but the on-screen countdown displays seconds; 5500 shows a countdown starting at 5.5.

Caution

When participants finish a trial at different moments, the pause and the countdown length can be read from different rows, so the countdown can use the wrong trial’s value. Keep arena_advance identical across all trials of a multiplayer block to avoid the ambiguity.