Hi everyone!

I decided to counterbalance at the beginning of data collection. How I did that...

Partner gender (male=1 vs. female=2) is one of my variables of 2 X 2 mixed design. That is why it's a quasi-experimental. In a group of male participants, half of the participants saw photo X at first and Y at second, and half saw Y at first and X at second. In the group of male participants, I applied the same.

For example, we used an excel sheet to follow order:

participant number/ Male (1) vs.Female (2)/ order of seeing photo (XY=1, YX=2)

1/1/1

2/1/2

3/2/1

4/1/1

5/2/2

6/2/1

7/1/2

..

1st question: I counterbalanced the order for participants, Half of the group saw photo X at first and Y at second (not randomly but 1 following 2 as shown above), and half saw Y at first and X at second. When I analyze my data, should I make the order a grouping variable and code half of the group as 1, and the other half as 2? Do I have to do that or just calculate the average scores of the dependent variable considering counterbalancing w/out counting it as another independent variable?

2nd question: If I have a 2x2 mixed design, does counterbalancing make my design 2x2x2?