Demonstration experiments in perception and cognitive psychology for the Macintosh computer

A package of programs demonstrating psychology experiments widely cited in perception and cognitive psychology textbooks is described. The programs are suitable for laboratory research projects and in-class demonstrations. An attractive feature of the programs is that they have provisions for changing experimental parameters to allow students to design different experiments from the original programs. Iconic memory, memory scanning (using the additive factors approach), lexical decision, target detection, speeded classification, picture recognition/picture memory, and the Phi phenomenon can be demonstrated.     

VSearch Color: Full-color visual search experiments on the Macintosh II

We describe an update to our visual search software for the Macintosh line of computers. The new software, VSearch Color, gives users access to the full-color capabilites of the Macintosh II line. One of the key features of the new software is its ability to treat graphics information separately from color information. This makes it easy to study color independently of form, to design experiments based on isoluminant stimuli, and to incorporate texture segregation, visual identification, number discrimination, adaptation, masking, and spatial cuing into the basic visual search paradigm.     

VSearch: Macintosh software for experiments in visual search

In this paper, we describe software that turns a Macintosh computer into an off-the-shelf tool for experiments on visual search. Our design goals included portability (between members of the Macintosh computer family and between various research settings), user-friendliness (equivalent to Macintosh programming standards), flexibility (to allow replication and extension of important experiments on visual search), and adaptability (very short design-to-data and data-to-analysis turnaround times). We describe how the software meets these goals in three major phases of an experiment: stimulus construction, experimental control, and statistical analysis. We then list several landmark studies of visual search that can be easily designed and extended with the software. Finally, we outline plans for expanding the experimental variations that will be supported in future versions of the software.     

A program for comprehension monitoring of text using HyperCard for the Macintosh

We describe a program using HyperCard for the Macintosh that allows the collection of several different types of text processing data in a realistic, natural, and unobtrusive experimental setting. The program allows a sentence-by-sentence presentation of text and allows unconstrained movement forward and backward through the text. Subjects can, at any point during reading, look back at individual sentences presented previously, or review all previously presented sentences at once. All sentence readings and rereadings are timed, and the sequence of readings, rereadings, and reviews is recorded. Following passage reading, questions are asked to examine comprehension and memory of the passage. The program is well suited for the examination of comprehension evaluation and regulation in readers, as well as for the examination of other comprehension and memory processes.     

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.     

FTAP: A Linux-based program for tapping and music experiments

This paper describes FTAP, a flexible data collection system for tapping and music experiments. FTAP runs on standard PC hardware with the Linux operating system and can process input keystrokes and auditory output with reliable millisecond resolution. It uses standard MIDI devices for input and output and is particularly flexible in the area of auditory feedback manipulation. FTAP can run a wide variety of experiments, including synchronization/continuation tasks (Wing & Kristofferson, 1973), synchronization tasks combined with delayed auditory feedback (Aschersleben & Prinz, 1997), continuation tasks with isolated feedback perturbations (Wing, 1977), and complex alterations of feedback in music performance (Finney, 1997). Such experiments have often been implemented with custom hardware and software systems, but with FTAP they can be specified by a simple ASCII text parameter file. FTAP is available at no cost in source-code form.     

A Macintosh and Windows program for assessing body-image disturbance using adjustable image distortion

Body image is one of the most important concepts in the study of eating disorders. The assessment and treatment of body-image issues are considered to be integral aspects of assessment and clinical management of eating disorders (Thompson, 1996b). The program, BodyImage, is software for the assessment of body-image disturbance. It uses an image-distorting technique to estimate body size. The image of the whole body or parts of the body can be captured as a digital image by a digital camera. Response data from participants are recorded as ASCII files so that other computer programs such as spreadsheets or word processing programs can handle the data. BodyImage works on personal computers, both Macintosh and Windows. It is available at no cost, and it can be obtained from the following URL: http://homepage2.nifty.com/s_shibata/softwares/bodyimage.html.     

A server-side program for delivering experiments with animations

A server-side program for animation experiments is presented. The program is capable of delivering an experiment composed of discrete animation sequences in various file formats, collecting a discrete or continuous response from the observer, evaluating the appropriateness of the response, and ensuring that the user is not proceeding at an unreasonable rate. Most parameters of the program are controllable by experimenter-edited text files or simple switches in the program code, thereby minimizing the need for programming to create new experiments. A simple demonstration experiment is discussed and is freely available.     

Picture recognition without picture identification: a method for assessing the role of perceptual information in familiarity-based picture recognition

The present study examined the claim that unidentifiable test-pictures are processed and recognized on a perceptual, as opposed to a conceptual, level. Using an extension of the recognition without identification paradigm (e.g., Cleary, A. M. & Greene, R. L. (2000). Recognition without identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26, 1063-1069; Peynircioglu, Z. F. (1990). A feeling-of-recognition without identification. Journal of Memory and Language, 29, 493-500), it was observed that when test-pictures were unidentifiable during a masked perceptual identification task, old-new discrimination occurred when the study-list consisted of pictures (Experiments 1-3), but not when the study-list consisted of picture names (Experiment 2) or when picture exemplars served as test-cues (Experiment 3). Results provide converging evidence that a study-test perceptual match is needed for the episodic recognition of unidentified test-pictures. Implications for the present paradigm as a tool for examining the role of perceptual information in recognition-familiarity are discussed.     

Psychmuse: A Macintosh system for psychomusicology research

A software system developed with HyperCard has been designed to support research relying on musical stimuli. The software accesses a set of digitized sounds in memory that consist of chromatic scale notes for the piano, harp, and guitar. Menu options allow experimenters to create monophonic melodies, to arrange melodies in a prescribed order, and to present them in a flexible format for a variety of psychological tasks. In addition to supporting experimental research projects, the software can also be used to demonstrate certain fundamental principles of auditory perception and cognitive psychology.     

MacLab: A Macintosh system for psychology labs

MacLab, a program that turns the Apple Macintosh into a psychology laboratory tool, is described. MacLab combines intelligent editors, a millisecond timer, MacPaint pictures, and the ease of use of the Macintosh user interface to create a system with which experimental psychologists can quickly create and run powerful experiments with no need of any knowledge of programming.