Repeated Measures Experiments with Many trials in SPSS (PASW)

I was recently talking to a researcher who was in the process of analysing experimental data based on a 2 x 2 x 2 x 4 repeated measures design. Each combination of the levels of the repeated measures factors involved five trials. The dependent variable was reaction time. The researcher had their data laid out in a one person per participant format (wide format). I had the following advice for the researcher:

Data Format:
Create a long format data file called “trials” where each row is the combination of one participant and one trial. And have a separate data file called “subjects” that contains one row per participant and includes data on participants that is constant throughout the experiment (e.g., gender, age, personality measures, etc.).