The computer as experimenter in social psychological research

The effects of familiarity and exposure paradigm on evaluative meaning were investigated in four experiments involving 161 Ss. A DEC PDP-10 computer linked to a VB10-C display screen for 1/0 assigned Ss to condition, presented instructions, tested Ss’ understanding of the instructions, generated and displayed stimuli in various frequencies, and obtained evaluative ratings of the stimuli. Problems encountered, Ss’ reactions, and current and possible use of the computer in social psychological research are discussed.     

A computer running several psychological laboratories

Seven psychological laboratories, capable of testing 22 human and 4 animal Ss in seven different experiments using a variety of peripheral equipment, are in various stages of operation using an IBM 1800 process-control computer in the Psychology Department at Indiana University. Each experiment utilizes four appropriate software programs: SETUP, PROCEDURE, UI1LITY, and OUTPUT. The programming is usually simple enough to be done by nonprofessional programmers. This simplification was made possible by (1) a set of subroutines written to handle many of the process-control programming complexities, and (2) the IBM-provided Time-Sharing Executive (TSX) program.     

IDAC computer interfacing for an undergraduate learning laboratory

A hardware and software interface system from International Data and Acquisition and Control, Inc. (IDAC) is reviewed. The IDAC system comes with spreadsheet software compatible for either Macintosh or IBM microcomputers. I prefer to use the IDAC hardware with my own software written in TrueBasic and spreadsheet macros. The entire system is easy to use and is currently in use for our undergraduate Learning Laboratory.     

A decentralized computer network for supervision of multiple psychological laboratories

The computer network described was designed to optimize the use of a number of independent minicomputers as a single integrated system for process control of several research laboratories. The implementation of the network required both the development of a special purpose interprocessor interface and the design of a software support system to direct network operations. The network was designed according to the familiar “star” configuration, with the exception that the central computer in the star does not exercise exclusive supervisory control over the system. Rather, each computer on the system “sees” the central computer as a peripheral similar in characteristics to a medium speed I/O device. This design allows each computer to serve not only as a node in the network, but also as an entirely independent process controller.     

C-CAT: A computer software used to analyze and select Chinese characters and character components for psychological research

The Character-Component Analysis Toolkit (C-CAT) software was designed to assist researchers in constructing experimental materials using traditional Chinese characters. The software package contains two sets of character stocks: one suitable for research using literate adults as subjects and one suitable for research using schoolchildren as subjects. The software can identify linguistic properties, such as the number of strokes contained, the character-component pronunciation regularity, and the arrangement of character components within a character. Moreover, it can compute a character’s linguistic frequency, neighborhood size, and phonetic validity with respect to a user-selected character stock. It can also search the selected character stock for similar characters or for character components with user-specified linguistic properties.     

Zoroaster: A multiprogramming system for psychological research

The development of a multiprogramming system for psychological research was undertaken on a PDP-9 computer with 8k memory. The needs of the users and the time demands on the computer raised several important questions: (1) Can a practical timesharing system be developed with only 8k memory? (2) Can critical timing functions be maintained? (3) Can easy access be provided (e.g., Fortran) to all experimental devices? (4) Can a system be designed which will take advantage of and be compatible with most of the standard DEC-provided software (e.g., Fortran compiler, loader)? The system was successfully developed by using a rapid within-core swapping technique, standard I/O routines, many general-purpose handlers and subroutines, and fully utilizing available core.     

Design and use of a U.S. census data computer laboratory for teaching undergraduate research methods

This paper discusses the design and development of an interdisciplinary social science computer laboratory for teaching undergraduate research methods courses and research components of applied and theoretical courses. The U.S. Census of the Population, a database commonly used in all of the social sciences, is used in order to give students research experience and to avoid ethical problems involved in working with animal and human subjects in an undergraduate course. Some issues in laboratory design and required changes in teaching methods are discussed.     

Gaze and eye-tracking solutions for psychological research

Eye-tracking technology is a growing field used to detect eye movements and analyze human processing of visual information for interactive and diagnostic applications. Different domains in scientific research such as neuroscience, experimental psychology, computer science and human factors can benefit from eye-tracking methods and techniques to unobtrusively investigate the quantitative evidence underlying visual processes. In order to meet the experimental requirements concerning the variety of application fields, different gaze- and eye-tracking solutions using high-speed cameras are being developed (e.g., eye-tracking glasses, head-mounted or desk-mounted systems), which are also compatible with other analysis devices such as magnetic resonance imaging. This work presents an overview of the main application fields of eye-tracking methodology in psychological research. In particular, two innovative solutions will be shown: (1) the SMI RED-M eye-tracker, a high performance portable remote eye-tracker suitable for different settings, that requires maximum mobility and flexibility; (2) a wearable mobile gaze-tracking device--the SMI eye-tracking glasses--which is suitable for real-world and virtual environment research. For each kind of technology, the functions and different possibilities of application in experimental psychology will be described by focusing on some examples of experimental tasks (i.e., visual search, reading, natural tasks, scene viewing and other information processing) and theoretical approaches (e.g., embodied cognition).     

Fractional Design Wizard: A computer program for cost-effective experimental research design

The computer program Fractional Design Wizard creates fractional factorial designs that are cost-effective and especially useful for discarding irrelevant factors from a large number of possible candidates. The program is intended for researchers who are relativelynew to the field of fractional design and who want to acquaint themselves with the use of fractions for the reduction of large experimental designs. Fractional designs allow estimation of main effects, and sometimes two-way interactions, without one’s having to examine all treatment conditions. The program needs Microsoft Windows 95 or better and 32 MB of memory. In a step-by-step fashion, the user can specify the required properties of the fractional design. When there are more valid designs, the user can generate these successively If necessary the user can go back to diminish the requirements. The output can be copied, printed, and saved. The program generates all the information that is needed for the use and interpretation of fractional designs. A help file explains the use of the program and also the purpose, the analysis, and the interpretation of fractional designs. The program, which is written in Object Pascal, is available as freeware on www.fss.uu.nl/ms/hl/fracdes.htm.     

A factor analytic study of the psychological implications of the computer for the individual and society

The coming of the computer age has provided widespread discussion of the effects on the individual and society of this most recent and powerful intellectual and technological revolution. Discussions of the psychological implications of the computer have produced a literature that is primarily polemic and, in any case, not measurement oriented with respect to identifying basic issues and central attitudes. In this article, measurement procedures including the development and testing of the Cybernetics Attitude Scale (the computer’s psychological effect in each of 10 sectors of society) and a factor analytic study of the collected data are presented. The article concludes with a discussion of the research implications of the factor analytic findings and the ways in which these findings illumine the problem of the meaning of the computer for the individual and society.     

From the lab to the police station. A successful application of eyewitness research

The U.S. Department of Justice released the first national guide for collecting and preserving eyewitness evidence in October 1999. Scientific psychology played a large role in making a case for these procedural guidelines as well as in setting a scientific foundation for the guidelines, and eyewitness researchers directly participated in writing them. The authors describe how eyewitness researchers shaped understanding of eyewitness evidence issues over a long period of time through research and theory on system variables. Additional pressure for guidelines was applied by psychologists through expert testimony that focused on deficiencies in the procedures used to collect the eyewitness evidence. DNA exoneration cases were particularly important in leading U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to notice the eyewitness literature in psychology and to order the National Institute of Justice to coordinate the development of national guidelines. The authors describe their experience as members of the working group, which included prosecutors, defense lawyers, and law enforcement officers from across the country.