Inexpensive plotters and digitizers for psychological research and instruction

The availability of low-cost microcomputers has been accompanied by the development of many inexpensive peripheral devices. The recent introduction of digitizers and plotters for use with microcomputers makes new research designs and instructional applications possible. This paper reports the characteristics and applications of one plotter and three digitizers of reasonably low cost. The application of digitizers in obtaining individual responses, quantifying data, preparing stimuli, and translating stimuli into machine-readable form is discussed. The application of plotters to hands-on instruction in data analysis and stimulus preparation is presented.