AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |
Back to Blog
Psychopy coder tutorial9/1/2023 The photodiode is placed on the screen of the computer being tested and detects every black-to-white or white-to-black transition, and the data is logged by the BBTK device. The authors followed a pretty standard procedure for this kind of thing, which is to use a piece of external recording equipment (in this case the Black Box Tool Kit) connected to a photo-diode. As I’ve written about before, accurate timing in experiments can often be of great importance and is by no means guaranteed, so it’s good to see some objective work on this, conducted using modern hardware and software. The paper is open-access, and you can read it here. The aim was to test the timing accuracy of the software when presenting simple visual stimuli (alternating black and white screens). This is one of the best examples I’ve seen of the power of an open approach to science, and the ability of post-publication review to have a real impact.Ī new paper just out in PLoS One (thanks to Neuroskeptic for pointing it out on Twitter) shows the results of some tests conducted on three common pieces of software used in psychology and neuroscience research: DMDX, E-Prime, and PsychoPy. As a result of the authors posting their code up to the OSF website, and the fact that PLoS One allows comments to be posted on its articles, the issue could be readily identified and clarified, in a completely open and public manner, and within a matter of days. However, there’s a wider picture that’s revealed by this little episode, and a very interesting one I think. So, great news if, like me, you’re a fan of PsychoPy. Those who need the full story should read Jon’s comment (and the response by the authors) on the PLoS comments page for the article. Up-to-date versions have this feature, and as a result are now much more reliable. It turns out the authors used an older version of PsychoPy, where the ability to set a stimulus duration in frames (or screen refreshes) wasn’t available. As a result it was possible for Jon to examine the scripts and see what the issue was. The authors of the paper made all the data and (importantly) the program scripts used to generate it available on the Open Science Framework site. However, the creator of PsychoPy ( Jon Peirce, of Nottingham University) has already responded to the data in the paper. The paper suggested that PsychoPy had some issues with presenting very fast stimuli that only lasted one (or a few) screen refreshes. A few days ago I reported on a new paper that tested the timing accuracy of experimental software packages.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |