SuperLab: General-purpose Macintosh software for human experimental psychology and psychological testing

SuperLab is a general-purpose psychology testing package for the Macintosh. SuperLab presents static visual and auditory stimuli in blocks of trials, each trial consisting of a user-specified sequence of stimuli. Responses can be recorded from the keyboard or from switches connected to an I/O board. Stimuli can be contingent on subjects’ responses, allowing feedback based on response accuracy. Timing uses Time Manager routines from the Macintosh Toolbox. Data are recorded in a text format with tabs delimiting fields, allowing analysis and presentation by other Macintosh spreadsheet, statistics, and graph-making applications. SuperLab has a Macintosh user interface for developing experiments. Psychological tasks can also be designed and modified with any application that generates a text format file.     

An external millisecond timer for the Apple Macintosh with applications to cross-modal lexical priming

The circuit and program described in this report allow researchers to use Macintosh personal computers to conduct research that requires timing with millisecond accuracy. This is accomplished with external response keys and an external clock that sends characters through the Macintosh’s serial port. For researchers interested in cross-modal lexical priming tasks, a tachistoscopic slide shutter is incorporated to allow for accurately timed presentation of visual stimuli. Because the visual display and response keys are external to the computer, display and reaction times are not subject to the timing constraints inherent to the keyboard or the Macintosh Event Manager. All circuit diagrams and code are in the public domain.     

The Macintosh as a user-friendly laboratory for perception and cognition

We present a radically user-friendly Macintosh laboratory, MindLab, for instruction in perception and cognition. MindLab’s forte is its ability to display pictorial stimuli, including digitized photographs, transferred via the clipboard from Macintosh graphics applications. An experiment is programmed by specifying sequences of event primitives, represented by icons, to which stimuli, temporal parameters, and feedback options are assigned.     

Millisecond timing on the Apple Macintosh: Updating Drexel’s MilliTimer

In 1986, we published inBehavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers a small library of assembler code for the public domain that permitted accurate millisecond timing for Apple’s Macintosh computer. That version of MilliTimer used the Versatile Interface Adapter chip’s Timer 1 (VIA T1), which is part of the standard Macintosh hardware configuration. The VIA T1, however, is also used by the Sound Manager, and thus the use of sound and accurate millisecond timing were incompatible. We offer for the public domain a new version labeled MilliTimer 2.2, which permits psychologists and other researchers to use the full capabilities of the Macintosh. MilliTimer 2.2 is compatible with popular teaching, research, and clinical tools such as Hyper-Card and MacLaboratory. MilliTimer 2.2 employs the Macintosh Time Manager, which is a part of the Macintosh operating system and is supported by Apple for the 512KE, Plus, SE, and Macintosh II machines. MilliTimer 2.2 is hardware-independent and automatically self-corrects for other operating system activities that also use the Time Manager. The self-correcting function is limited, however, and can result in a nonaccumulating error averaging about ?3 msec. To preserve compatibility with earlier machines that do not contain the Time Manager, a simple mode parameter allows MilliTimer 2.2 to use the older, more accurate timing method.     

The labtop Macintosh: An interface and communications software for experiment control of animal learning research

A peripheral interface and communications software are described that allow the Macintosh Plus microcomputer to control experiments in animal learning. A Walter/Palya experiment control board (ECB; Walter & Palya, 1984), connected to the Macintosh by a RS-232 modem cable, operates as the I/O interface. The Hayes-Smartcom II software provides an easily operated communications link through menu and icon commands. Smartcom II allows the Macintosh to transmit experiment control tasks to the ECB and to collect and store obtained data. Network communication over a single RS-232 modem cable is also described.     

Development and operating environments for a network of Walter/Palya experiment controllers on the Macintosh computer

A program development and an operating environment for using the Walter/Palya experiment controller with a Macintosh are discussed. The importance in maintaining the productivity and intuitive aspects of the Macintosh’s user interface is stressed. With this environment, simple choices using the mouse control most aspects of developing and debugging programs and the day-to-day conduct of research.     

Toolbox-based routines for Macintosh timing and display

Pascal routines are described for several real-time operations on Macintosh computers. Methods are presented for millisecond timing and for high-speed transfer of arbitrary bit-image displays to the screen. All routines are based on Toolbox procedures available on virtually all Macintosh computers.     

Tachistoscopic software for Macintosh computers

The requirements for accurate presentation of short-duration stimuli on, raster display monitors are summarized, and existing packages for instantiating such displays are evaluated. A new soft-ware package that provides tachistoscopic functions for Macintosh computers is described. This software, called MacTach, performs video-buffer switching, allowing tachistoscopic presentation of large or multibit depth images that is not available with alternative methods. Compatibility routines and verification procedures allow compatibility with all Macintosh computers. Applications for animation, motion, and dichoptic presentations are discussed.     

Tachistoscopic software for the Macintosh

The emulation of a tachistoscope with a Macintosh microcomputer and Pascal language is presented here. The software described is a complete program for the presentation of textual stimuli on the Macintosh screen and includes the recording of reaction times. The stimulus coordinates on the screen are user defined and variable from trial to trial for specific visual angles. The position of a fixation point on the screen and the distance between the subject and the plane of the screen, as well as the particular screen resolution, are taken into account in computing the visual angle.     

Accurate millisecond timing on Apple’s Macintosh using Drexel’s MilliTimer

Many of the timed functions that concern psychologists, such as perceptual presentations and reaction time, are sensitive to a maximum variability in display timing caused by screen-refresh characteristics. For the Apple Macintosh, the screen operating speed is 60 Hz, which translates to an average of 8.33-msec variability. For microcomputers other than the Macintosh, a variety of hardware and software modifications to generate millisecond timing have become standard (e.g., Reed, 1979). Other than Reed College’s (1985) implementation in Rascal, which requires the Rascal development language, there has been no method of which we were aware to synchronize experimental timing with display presentation on the Macintosh. This limitation in the usefulness of the Macintosh as an otherwise excellent research tool can be overcome using Drexel University’s MilliTimer. The assembler code which follows should be considered in the public domain and can be readily adapted to any of the Macintosh-based languages.     

Pascal external functions for Strawberry Tree’s “Analog Connection Workbench” on the Macintosh

Strawberry Tree Incorporated is one of several manufacturers of input-output boards for the Macintosh computer. The Analog Connection Workbench program (Strawberry Tree Inc.) provides an icon-based programming system for these input-output boards that has most of the functions that are necessary to implement behavioral experiments. However, experimental psychologists may frequently encounter needs that the Workbench program cannot easily meet. Because the Workbench is programmed in C, whereas many psychologists are more expert in programming in Pascal, we describe, in tutorial fashion, how the user may define new external functions in Pascal on the Macintosh and integrate these functions into the icon-based Workbench programming system.     

The display and animation of full-color images in real time on the Macintosh computer

Techniques for displaying and animating full-color and gray-scale images in real time are illustrated with Pascal examples. The Palette Manager procedures included in the Macintosh Toolbox are used to circumvent the speed limitations inherent in drawing and redrawing images on the Macintosh’s video display. With the technique of palette animation, images of arbitrary size and complexity can be displayed easily and animated at the scan rate of the video monitor. The routines described here are based on Toolbox procedures available on any Macintosh with color video capabilities.     

A voice-activated key for the Apple Macintosh computer

An interface circuit to connect a microphone to an Apple Macintosh computer is described. The Apple Macintosh mouse port is used as the input port, and the microphone activation simulates a mouse press.     

Graphing multivariate data with Chernoff''s faces

Chernoff's faces is one of several icon graphics routines accessible through the SYGRAPH module available through SYSTAT Inc. SYSTAT is a very sophisticated statistics package that has been previously reviewed in the Journal of School Psychology (Roberts, D. M. JSP 25, 313–318, 1987). SYSTAT and SYGRAPH are available for both the IBM PC and the Apple Macintosh computers. The output from this example was produced with SYSTAT 5.1 on a Macintosh computer.     

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.     

MacPsych: An electronic discussion list and archive for psychology concerning the Macintosh computer

MacPsych is an electronic mail discussion list and an electronic archive for those using the Macintosh in psychology. The discussion list allows psychologists from around the world to ask questions and discuss issues relating to the use of the Macintosh in psychology. The archive is a place where list members may share software and other files of relevance. The Society for Computers in Psychology sponsors the discussion list, and the journalBehavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers has designated the archive as the distribution site for Macintosh software and files described in its pages. Those interested may join the list by sending electronic mail to macpsych-request@stolaf.edu. The archive can be accessed via anonymous ftp at ftp.stolaf.edu in the directory pub/macpsych.     

Student statistics programs for the Macintosh

This paper reviews 15 statistics programs for the Macintosh. All are intended for student use, often in conjunction with a statistics course, and are available for under $100. Of the general-purpose programs, Data Desk and StatView offer the most appealing combination of features, Macintosh interface, and student-accessible manual. Minitab is also recommended, especially in situations where some students will be using Macs and others using PCs. In addition to the analysis-only programs, two other applications present interesting combinations of statistics and other features. DataSim offers outstanding data generation and experiment simulation along with very complete, and psychology-oriented, statistical analysis. HyperStat combines an entire statistics textbook in hypertext format with a complete data analysis package. Finally, for special situations where simple statistics are all that are required, InStat is recommended because of its tutorial features and very simple interface.     

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.     

MacLaboratory Controller: A switch and A/D interface between Apple’s Macintosh and peripheral apparatus

Apple’s Macintosh microcomputer has advantages over other systems used for laboratory control and data acquisition, especially because of its graphic and user-friendly features. However, a major perceived limitation has been its closed architecture. We describe an interface using the RS 422 modem port that supports up to 64 input/output (I/O) functions including analog-to-digital 4–12 channel input. The Controller software supplies an easily edited authoring tool in which functional relationships, logical operators, timing (millisecond accuracy), and counting functions are established through simple mouse and menu commands. Data from I/O functions may be displayed or saved as tab-delimited files that can be opened by various Macintosh statistical and spreadsheet packages and that are transportable to some mainframe applications.     

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.