How to Combine Multiple Data Files into a Single File

Depending on the configuration of the data and summarydata elements in your script, and whether you are saving the data locally or to a remote server, Inquisit may record data from all participants to a single file, or it may record data from each participant to a separate file.

If the data is saved to separate files, you can easily combine them into a single file that can be loaded into SPSS, Excel, or any other stats program for analysis. To combine data from multiple data files, perform the following steps:

1. Start the Inquisit application on your PC or Mac
2. Select the Merge Data Files command from the File menu
3. Browse to the folder containing your data files
4. Hold down the Shift key and select all of the files to be merged
5. Click the Open button - you should see the data from all of the selected files combined in the data editor
6. Select the Save command from the File menu to save the merged data

The data are saved in a non-proprietary tab-delimited text format that can be loaded into your statistics program of choice. Consult the documentation of your data analysis software for instructions on importing tab-delimited text.