responseOptionsRandom

Surveys & forms

Shuffles the display order of the choices defined in responseOptions for a type=form question. When set, the options are shown in a shuffled order instead of the order they are written in.

Use it to counterbalance option order in radio, checkbox, dropdown, rank, likert and matrix questions.

Syntax

Put 1 in the cell of a form trial to shuffle its response options. Any non-empty value works; the value itself carries no meaning.

Options

Value	Effect
empty cell	No randomization; options shown in responseOptions CSV order
any other value (1, 0, yes, x…)	Options shuffled once per trial render

There is no per-value semantics: 0 does NOT disable randomization, it enables it, because any non-empty value activates it.

Defaults & missing values

• When the column is absent or the cell is left blank, no randomization happens: options appear in the order written in responseOptions.
• When active, the shuffle happens at the moment the form question is generated, independently per trial row and per participant.

Works with

• responseOptions: what gets shuffled is the semicolon-separated responseOptions list.
• Response codes in results: the code recorded for a chosen option always refers to the original CSV order, not the displayed order. Randomization never changes the code a given option maps to.
• responseType: affects radio, checkboxes, dropdown, rank and likert questions, and matrix columns when responseRows is set. It has no effect on slider (a slider’s responseOptions cell carries its settings rather than a list of choices), nor on box, comment or stars, which ignore responseOptions.
• :exclusive checkbox options: exclusive options always render last, after the normal options, keeping their shuffled order among themselves.
• responseOther: the Other choice is a separate item, not part of the shuffled options, so it is unaffected by randomization.
• type column: only type=form trials are affected; on other trial types the column has no effect.
• JSON forms: trials whose form column references preloaded form JSON do not consult this column.

Examples

Radio question with counterbalanced options:

type	head	responseType	responseOptions	responseOptionsRandom
form	Which fruit do you prefer?	radio	Apples;Oranges;Bananas;Grapes	1

Options appear in a random order, but a participant choosing Grapes always gets responseCode 4 (CSV position).

Likert with randomized anchors (rateValues order shuffles):

type	head	responseType	responseOptions	responseOptionsRandom
form	Rate your agreement	likert	Strongly disagree;Disagree;Neutral;Agree;Strongly agree	1

Tips & gotchas

Caution

Any non-empty value randomizes, including 0. Writing responseOptionsRandom=0 to mean “off” silently turns randomization on.

• The displayed (shuffled) option order is NOT recorded anywhere in the results. Unlike responseRowsRandom (which writes responseRows_actual), no record of the displayed option order is kept; if your analysis needs the order each participant saw, this column cannot provide it.
• On non-form trials (slider, box, comment, label…) the column does nothing: no randomization happens outside form questions.