One suggestion: This survey seems to be for people who use modafinil regularly. I might suggest doing something (perhaps creating another survey) to get opinions from people who tried modafinil once or twice and disliked it. My one experience with Nuvigil was quite bad, and I recall Vaniver saying that he thought modafinil did nothing at all for him.
I’ve split it up into multiple pages: the first page classifies you as an active or inactive user and then sends you to a detailed questionnaire on how you use it if you are active, or simply why you stopped if inactive, and then both go to a long demographics/background page.
Sounds good. I would also add a “never used it” option. It can go straight to the demographics/background page.
Otherwise you might have people who never used it classify themselves as “inactive user”.
In general, do you find brand-name -afinils more effective than generics?
I think that answer should have more than just (yes) and (no) as an answer. At least it should have a “I don’t know” answer.
I would add a question “When was the last time you used modafinil?” to see whether people are on aggregate right about how many days per week they use it. Maybe even “At what time of the day did you use it?”
I would be interested in a question about how many hours the person sleeps on average.
Have you thought about having a question about bodyweight? I would be interested in knowing whether heavier people take a larger dose.
I’ve added ‘the same’ as a third option to the generic vs brand-name question, and 2 questions about average hours of sleep a night & body weight.
I would add a question “When was the last time you used modafinil?” to see whether people are on aggregate right about how many days per week they use it.
What would the response there be, an exact date or n days ago or what?
I have no experience with -afinils, but it seems to me that there will surely be cases of people who have tried only brand-name (or, alternatively, only generic) -afinil, and therefore cannot accurately respond to the question
In general, do you find brand-name -afinils more effective than generics?
With yes, no, or the same. The correct answer would be “I don’t know”. If I were taking this survey, I would skip that question rather than try to guess which answer you wanted in that case. But if I were designing the survey, I would go with ChristianKl’s suggestion.
I’ve added ‘the same’ as a third option to the generic vs brand-name question
I would guess that a majority of the respondents haven’t testing multiple kind of modafinil and thus are not equipped to answer the question at all. “I don’t know” seems to be the proper answer for them.
In the questions about SNPs, 23andMe reports RS4570625 as G or T, not A or G, and RS4633 as C or T, not A or G.
I was surprised to see Vitamin D listed as a nootropic, and Google turns up nothing much on the subject. Fixing a deficiency of anything will likely have a positive effect on mental function, but that is drawing the boundary of “nootropic” rather wide.
Why is nicotine amplified as “gum, patch, lozenge”, to the exclusion of tobacco? Cancer is a reason to not smoke tobacco, but I don’t think it’s a reason not to ask about it. Or are those who smoke not smart enough to be in the target population for the survey? :)
ETA: Also a typo in “SNP status of COMT RS4570625”: the subtext mentions rs4680, not rs4570625. I dont know what “Val/Met” and “COMT” mean, but are those specific to RS4680 or correct for all three SNPs?
In the questions about SNPs, 23andMe reports RS4570625 as G or T, not A or G, and RS4633 as C or T, not A or G.
Oops. Shouldn’t’ve assumed they’d be the same...
but that is drawing the boundary of “nootropic” rather wide.
It is but it’s still common and can be useful. The nootropics list is based on Yvain’s previous nootropics survey, which I thought might be useful for comparison. (I also stole a bunch of questions from his LW survey too, figuring that they’re at least battle-tested at this point.)
Why is nicotine amplified as “gum, patch, lozenge”, to the exclusion of tobacco?
I have no interest in tobacco, solely nicotine. Although now that you object to that, I realize I forgot to specify vaping/e-cigs as included.
Modafinil survey: I’m curious about how modafinil users in general use it, get it, their experiences, etc, and I’ve been working on a survey. I would welcome any comments about missing choices, bad questions, etc on the current draft of the survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ZNyGHl6vnHD62spZyHIqyvNM_Ts_82GvZQVdAr2LrGs/viewform?fbzx=2867338011413840797
Great idea.
One suggestion: This survey seems to be for people who use modafinil regularly. I might suggest doing something (perhaps creating another survey) to get opinions from people who tried modafinil once or twice and disliked it. My one experience with Nuvigil was quite bad, and I recall Vaniver saying that he thought modafinil did nothing at all for him.
The survey could have multiple pages:
The first page simply asks:
What’s your modafinil usage:
a) Never
b) I used it in the past and then stopped.
c) I’m currently using it. (leading the user to your current survey)
I’ve split it up into multiple pages: the first page classifies you as an active or inactive user and then sends you to a detailed questionnaire on how you use it if you are active, or simply why you stopped if inactive, and then both go to a long demographics/background page.
Sounds good. I would also add a “never used it” option. It can go straight to the demographics/background page. Otherwise you might have people who never used it classify themselves as “inactive user”.
(If they’ve never used modafinil, why on earth are they taking my survey?!)
They might be interested in taking modafinil. The fact that they shouldn’t take the survey doesn’t mean they won’t.
I think that answer should have more than just (yes) and (no) as an answer. At least it should have a “I don’t know” answer.
I would add a question “When was the last time you used modafinil?” to see whether people are on aggregate right about how many days per week they use it. Maybe even “At what time of the day did you use it?”
I would be interested in a question about how many hours the person sleeps on average.
Have you thought about having a question about bodyweight? I would be interested in knowing whether heavier people take a larger dose.
I’ve added ‘the same’ as a third option to the generic vs brand-name question, and 2 questions about average hours of sleep a night & body weight.
What would the response there be, an exact date or n days ago or what?
I have no experience with -afinils, but it seems to me that there will surely be cases of people who have tried only brand-name (or, alternatively, only generic) -afinil, and therefore cannot accurately respond to the question
With yes, no, or the same. The correct answer would be “I don’t know”. If I were taking this survey, I would skip that question rather than try to guess which answer you wanted in that case. But if I were designing the survey, I would go with ChristianKl’s suggestion.
I would guess that a majority of the respondents haven’t testing multiple kind of modafinil and thus are not equipped to answer the question at all. “I don’t know” seems to be the proper answer for them.
Alright, I’ve added a don’t-know option and added a ‘when did you last use’ question.
Both would be possible but I think “n days ago” is more standard. It makes the data analysis easier.
A few details:
In the questions about SNPs, 23andMe reports RS4570625 as G or T, not A or G, and RS4633 as C or T, not A or G.
I was surprised to see Vitamin D listed as a nootropic, and Google turns up nothing much on the subject. Fixing a deficiency of anything will likely have a positive effect on mental function, but that is drawing the boundary of “nootropic” rather wide.
Why is nicotine amplified as “gum, patch, lozenge”, to the exclusion of tobacco? Cancer is a reason to not smoke tobacco, but I don’t think it’s a reason not to ask about it. Or are those who smoke not smart enough to be in the target population for the survey? :)
ETA: Also a typo in “SNP status of COMT RS4570625”: the subtext mentions rs4680, not rs4570625. I dont know what “Val/Met” and “COMT” mean, but are those specific to RS4680 or correct for all three SNPs?
Oops. Shouldn’t’ve assumed they’d be the same...
It is but it’s still common and can be useful. The nootropics list is based on Yvain’s previous nootropics survey, which I thought might be useful for comparison. (I also stole a bunch of questions from his LW survey too, figuring that they’re at least battle-tested at this point.)
I have no interest in tobacco, solely nicotine. Although now that you object to that, I realize I forgot to specify vaping/e-cigs as included.
Aminoacids. Val stands for valine. Met stands for methionine.
I think COMT is Catechol-O-methyl transferase which is the protein in question.