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+--- Thread: Audio stimuli across studies (/showthread.php?tid=840)
Audio stimuli across studies - HF2021 - 11-19-2025
Hello, Apologies if this is a simple question but I could not find an answer in the forum or tutorials. Assume that we use two different audio files (stimuli) spoken by two different people, but with the same file name, for example “happy.wav”, and each is used in a different study for a different purpose. Will uploading the stimulus for Study 2 overwrite the stimulus for Study 1 (creating a problem for that study) or are uploaded stimuli somehow automatically kept separate across studies in FF’s stimulus management system even if they have the same name. I have noticed that sometimes an uploaded stimulus has a long string of random numbers appended to its name and I wonder if this is something that automatically happens to keep stimuli with the same name separate across studies. We are using hundreds of audio stimuli across studies and there may occasionally be some common file names across these studies. Thank you!
RE: Audio stimuli across studies - noah.nelson - 11-19-2025
(11-19-2025, 04:31 PM)HF2021 Wrote: Hello, Apologies if this is a simple question but I could not find an answer in the forum or tutorials. Assume that we use two different audio files (stimuli) spoken by two different people, but with the same file name, for example “happy.wav”, and each is used in a different study for a different purpose. Will uploading the stimulus for Study 2 overwrite the stimulus for Study 1 (creating a problem for that study) or are uploaded stimuli somehow automatically kept separate across studies in FF’s stimulus management system even if they have the same name. I have noticed that sometimes an uploaded stimulus has a long string of random numbers appended to its name and I wonder if this is something that automatically happens to keep stimuli with the same name separate across studies. We are using hundreds of audio stimuli across studies and there may occasionally be some common file names across these studies. Thank you!
Oh, that's a great question Haleh! I'm actually not quite sure off the top of my head. I'll get back to you soon after I verify!
RE: Audio stimuli across studies - noah.nelson - 11-19-2025
(11-19-2025, 04:38 PM)noah.nelson Wrote:Hello, Haleh, thanks again for the great question.(11-19-2025, 04:31 PM)HF2021 Wrote: Hello, Apologies if this is a simple question but I could not find an answer in the forum or tutorials. Assume that we use two different audio files (stimuli) spoken by two different people, but with the same file name, for example “happy.wav”, and each is used in a different study for a different purpose. Will uploading the stimulus for Study 2 overwrite the stimulus for Study 1 (creating a problem for that study) or are uploaded stimuli somehow automatically kept separate across studies in FF’s stimulus management system even if they have the same name. I have noticed that sometimes an uploaded stimulus has a long string of random numbers appended to its name and I wonder if this is something that automatically happens to keep stimuli with the same name separate across studies. We are using hundreds of audio stimuli across studies and there may occasionally be some common file names across these studies. Thank you!
Oh, that's a great question Haleh! I'm actually not quite sure off the top of my head. I'll get back to you soon after I verify!
So, the answer is a little complex. The basic logic is that stimuli are effectively stored based on their name and shared across studies, so that whenever you upload a new file as "happy.wav" it overwrites any previous file with that name for all studies. However, there are some very important caveats to that.
Firstly, any time you launch a session, FindingFive makes a frozen copy of all stimulus files used in that session. This makes sure the file you were expecting is used throughout the session, and all participants get the same file for that stimulus. To put this in the context of your example, this means that if you have an active session for study 1 and then upload a new file "happy.wav" to study 2, the active session will continue to use the previous version while any new sessions (including previews) will use the new version.
Secondly, when studies are transferred between users, copies of the associated stimulus files are also transferred to the new owner. FindingFive automatically appends the ID of the underlying study to the stimulus file name to guard against inadvertently overwriting any of the original owner's stimulus files. This is the source of the seemingly random string of characters you noted in some file names.
So, what should you do? Well, you have a few choices, depending on how your lab manages work.
1. If you effectively create a new study for every experiment you run and don't run multiple experiments at the same time, then you probably don't need to worry much. This is because each new experiment doesn't care about the old files and just wants the newest version of "happy.wav".
2. But if things are less predictable, for example if you may run a session from study 1, then study 2, then study 1 again, then you probably will want unique names for all your files. You could do this any number of ways, but one simple way might be to tie a unique identifier to each study and include that in the file name.
Ultimately, the responsibility for making sure the right file is tied to your session at launch rests with the researchers, so make sure you put a robust system in place and preview your experiments carefully before launch!
Cheers,
Noah
RE: Audio stimuli across studies - HF2021 - 11-20-2025
Thank you so much Noah for looking into this and for the very detailed, quick, and helpful response! I think the best thing to do is, as you suggest, to append a unique identifier to each audio file that associates it with a given study. Thank you again!!