A 4-K computer language for experimentation with human subjects

This paper describes a conversational language for programming psychological experiments on small computers. The language can handle experiments of considerable complexity or with a large number of stimuli in less than 4-K core storage. The language is convenient for human experimentation because it can evaluate verbal responses and store and selectively display verbal stimuli.     

A computer interview language: Programming the on-line interactive computer

Seven computer interview and two disk file commands are executed by a computer program to display multiple-choice questions on a CRT video screen, to record clients’ answers, and to branch to various sets of questions. The program interpreting these commands uses little computer memory and does not require change each time the interview is altered or expanded. It can be written in almost any general-purpose programming language.     

Models,measurement and computer simulation: the changing face of experimentation

The paper presents an argument for treating certain types of computer simulation as having the same epistemic status as experimental measurement. While this may seem a rather counterintuitive view it becomes less so when one looks carefully at the role that models play in experimental activity, particularly measurement. I begin by discussing how models function as “measuring instruments” and go on to examine the ways in which simulation can be said to constitute an experimental activity. By focussing on the connections between models and their various functions, simulation and experiment one can begin to see similarities in the practices associated with each type of activity. Establishing the connections between simulation and particular types of modelling strategies and highlighting the ways in which those strategies are essential features of experimentation allows us to clarify the contexts in which we can legitimately call computer simulation a form of experimental measurement.

Building a programming language for a small computer: Reinventing the wheel

The language SP-12 for a PDP-12 computer is described. SP-12 is an example of how a special-purpose language can be constructed from a set of machine-language subroutines that are called by a simple interpreter. Symbolic source programs make it easy to learn the language. Preliminary translation of the source program into binary code, using an assembler, greatly increases the speed of the interpreter.     

PsychLib: A library of machine language routines for controlling psychology experiments on the Apple Macintosh computer

The hardware and system software of the Apple Macintosh computer are described, and their implications for conducting psychological research is discussed. A library of machine language routines for presenting auditory and visual stimuli and recording response latencies is described.     

CAN-4, an advanced author language for CAI,computer-based testing and psychological experimentation: PDP-9 implementation

The effective use of computers for tutorial (programmed instruction) teaching and on-line testing requires that curriculum authors have powerful special-purpose languages. One such language, CAN-4, has been designed and implemented to run on the PDP-9. The language includes advanced scoring, data recording, computation, timing, and file control facilities. The language and its implementation are described in relation to the instructional problems which the facilities are designed to meet.     

Requirements for minicomputer operating systems for human experimentation and an implementation on a 4K PDP-8 computer

A programming system is described which considerably simplifies preparation and running of experiments on PDP-8 computers.     

Laboratory experimentation and social field experimentation: An ambiguous distinction

Critical and epistemological reflections on the use of experimental methods in social psychology are often made to distinguish between two types of settings where these methods are used: The laboratory and the social field. But it is by no means certain that such a division has, from the start and at its own level, real significance: for one thing, because in social psychology, laboratory work is probably never merely laboratory work; and for another, because an analysis of what happens in practice would show that much experimental research work carried out in the social field merely transfers into that setting tools, concepts and a theoretical intention derived from the laboratory. If that is so, it follows that it is not at its own level that the laboratory-social field distinction has a heuristic and epistemological significance, nor is that the real location of the breaking-point between the methodologies. Perhaps the real ‘dividing’ line is one which separates experimental work which, whether in the laboratory or in the social field, concentrates on social interactions which are miniaturized or able to be so, from work which, in the social field, aims to concentrcte on processes which cannot be simulated or miniaturized without becoming distorted and seeks to reach social systems which are relatively complete and essentially intact.     

Using the FORTH language in real-time computer applications

The FORTH computer language is described, with emphasis on aspects relevant to its use in the real-time control of psychological experiments via microcomputers. Among FORTH’s advantages are speed, compactness, and flexibility. Potential disadvantages include unusual syntax and lack of file-oriented disk access. Two sample FORTH-based systems are described.     

George A. Miller, language, and the computer metaphor of mind

This article asks why the analogy between humans and computers was understood by cognitive psychologists to mean that "minds exist and that it is our job as psychologists to study them". Earlier psychologists, such as Clark Hull, used analogies between humans and complex machines such as telephone switchboards to defend a rigorous behaviorism. How, then, did the computer metaphor of mind come to be seen as the root concept underlying a paradigm shift from behaviorism to cognitivism? To answer this question, this article examines the life and work of George A. Miller, one of the most prominent of a generation of psychologists who began their careers as "good behaviorists" but later came to embrace cognitivism.     

A living will clause for supporters of animal experimentation

Many people assume that invasive research on animals is justified because of its supposed benefits and because of the supposed mental inferiority of animals. However probably most people would be unwilling to sign a living will which consigns themselves to live biomedical experimentation if they ever, through misfortune, end up with a mental capacity equivalent to a laboratory animal. The benefits would be greater by far for medical science if living will signatories were to be used, and also the mental superiority boast would no longer apply. Ultimately, it is argued that invasive biomedical experiments would be unacceptable in a democratic society whose members are philosophically self-consistent.     

A software tool for auditory and speech perception experimentation

A computer program capable of supporting auditory and speech perception experimentation is described. Given a continuum of acoustic stimuli, the program (Paradigm) allows the user to present those stimuli under different, well-known psychophysical paradigms (simple identification, identification with a rating scale, 2IAX, ABX, AXB, and oddity task). For discrimination tests, both high uncertainty (roving designs) and minimal psychophysical uncertainty (fixed designs) procedures are available. All the relevant time intervals can be precisely specified, and feedback is also available. Response times can be measured as well. Furthermore, the program stores subjects’ responses and provides summaries of experimental results for both individual subjects and groups. The program runs on Microsoft Windows (3.1 or 95) on personal computers equipped with any soundboard.     

PLE: A high-level multiprogramming language for psychology

This paper describes a software system called PLE that is designed to turn a Data General Corporation computer system into a sophisticated infinite-channel tachistoscope. We describe hardware and software characteristics of the PLE system and evaluate its performance in comparison to a typical tachistoscope. Additionally, we describe two example experiments that have been implemented in the PLE system.