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最新版 MediaLab v2008   October 5th, 2007
 

 相關軟體  DirectRT v2008

MediaLab Overview

MediaLab helps both technologically savvy and technologically challenged researchers with their creation of powerful computerized experiments. Created specifically for the Windows environment, MediaLab combines smart experimental design features with the capabilities of today’s powerful multi-media PC technology.

Highly intuitive and user-friendly, MediaLab comes with extensive help files, an easy-to-follow 93-page manual, sample experiments and a simple tutorial to help you get started right away. You will be able to start creating fully-functional basic experiments in 15 to 20 minutes.

Simple surveys? Complex factorial designs? No problem.

If you’ve used them, you know. General purpose programs typically have limited flexibility when it comes to experimental design. With MediaLab, participants can be administered different stimuli and different dependent measures and in different orders depending on the experimental condition. MediaLab allows for a wide variety of input including multiple choice responses, fill-in-the-blanks, essay-type open ended responses, thought and recall listings, and even ratings of one's own open-ended responses. MediaLab handles all of this with ease and writes friendly data files that be analyzed immediately in either Excel or SPSS.

Powerful Multi-Media Capability

MediaLab allows you present an abundance of stimuli from basic and fully-formatted Word documents, HTML, and PowerPoint Shows to multi-media files such as audio, video and image files—either alone or in combination. If MediaLab can not perform a specific task, it will branch off to run an independent program of your choosing during an experiment, and then return to where it left off.

General Features

• Define as many experimental conditions as you like (great for factorial designs).

• Flexible randomization features.

• Randomize items within a single group.

• Randomize the order that groups of items are presented.

• Randomization routines at both the experiment level and within questionnaires.

• Embed your own or third-party programs (DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 and later) within an experiment or questionnaire.

• Run DirectRT or Inquisit sessions from within your MediaLab experiment.

• Create multiple custom preference settings with choices of fonts and display colors.

• Context sensitive help such that pressing F1 at any time will help you with what you are currently doing.

• Option of on-the-fly editing of Word and WordPerfect documents-edit them as you run through your experiment.

• Resolution independent-compatible with screen displays from 640x480 to 1600x1200.

• Easy-to-use intuitive interface--no programming code necessary.

• Now compatible with non-English fonts (e.g., Japanese, Chinese, Arabic).

• Customize all messages and/or translate into any language.

• Optionally run experiments from a CD-ROM or Server on LAN.

Flexible Questionnaire Design

• Scale responses with up to 12 closed ended responses.

• Multiple response (select all that apply) responses.

• Fill-in-the blank responses (free or restricted).

• Essay-type responses.

• Thought listings and recall listings.

• Have subjects rate their own thought-listing responses on any dimension.

• Easy text-based instructions for any question.

• Present html pages with active hyperlinks. MediaLab uses the Internet Explorer browsing engine so you can display anything that Explorer can.

• Track browsing behavior as subjects navigate through local html files or the world wide web.

• Track every link the subject follows and record when they arrived and how long they stayed.

• Easily present Microsoft Word or any other OLE compatible documents for more elaborate formatting.

• Easily embed Microsoft PowerPoint shows within your experiment or questionnaire(s).

• Gather on-line continuous rating data during audio and video clips.

• Skip pattern capability when a particular closed ended response is given.

• Questionnaire items can be omitted in specified conditions.

• Easily modify and re-use your questionnaires in other experiments.

• Option of self-paced or time-limited responses.

• Allow subjects to return to previous questions if necessary.

• Embed subjects' responses in subsequent question wordings.

• Create multiple style configurations (e.g., colors and fonts) for use within the same experiment or questionnaire.

Multi-Media

• Present graphics (.bmp, .jpg, and .gif).

• Present sound files (.wav, .mp3.)

• Present video (.avi, .mpg, .mov.)

• Present combinations of graphics, sound, video and questionnaire items.

• Present html, flash, java, asp and any other browser compatible files.

• Optional parameters allow you to set the screen location of images and movies as well as set.

• Optional parameters allow you to set the screen location of images and movies as well as set the size of video clips all the way up to full screen.

Data

• Writes data to an easy-to-analyze ASCII file.

• Your choice of which variables to write to the data file.

• Writes all data into a single file that can be imported straight into Excel (up to 255 variables) or SPSS (unlimited variables). Variable definitions are written automatically, so you can start analyzing your results immediately.

• Two sets of data files are produced, one organized by questionnaires, the other by variable names.

• Includes a utility to easily merge data files collected on different computers.

• Optionally write reaction time for any response to the data file.

• Optionally write data from multiple computers to a single folder on your network.

DirectRT Overview

Do you have tasks in which you measure RTs that average less than 1000ms? Do you have tasks in which stimulus onset and presentation times are seriously expressed in milliseconds and not seconds? Are you comfortable with the "blocks of trials" concept?  If so, then you've come to the right place--DirectRT can dramatically simplify your life. 

Powerful and easy to use
With DirectRT you can quickly and easily create reaction time tasks that require precision timing. You will be able to easily obtain accurate high speed response input from keyboards, mice, joysticks, microphones and external hardware. Present sound, video, images and text with exacting precision. You will be amazed at how DirectRT can make this so easy.

Windows can accomodate precision
Windows has traditionally been a very chaotic environment for precisely controlling the timing of events. The development of Microsoft’s DirectX has changed all this for psychological research. DirectX based programs can now manipulate images and sound and monitor input activity at the millisecond level. All this with incredible reliability. Dust off your old oscilloscope and see for yourself! DirectRT is 100% DirectX. 

You’ll never go back
DirectRT comes with extensive on-line help files, an easy-to-follow 100-page manual and an on-line tutorial with over 40 samples that illustrate simple and advanced techniques. Using Microsoft Excel as its editor, you can create, copy, paste and modify trials in no time. Although we now offer millisecond accurate keyboards and button boxes, DirectRT also works great with most third party external hardware. Even with a standard USB keyboard, serial mouse, joystick, or sound card microphone, error is remarkably low. Bottom line is that DirectRT will help minimize timing error associated with most hardware.

General Features and Response Times

• Timing resolution of 1 millisecond.

• Response timing is synchronized with the screen display so timing always begins when the screen first begins to draw (eliminates 10-17 milliseconds of random error).

• Works with Windows to pause all other system events while timing is taking place. With everything else put on hold, the highest processing priority possible is given to DirectRT during the critical time intervals on each trial.

• Uses Microsoft’s DirectX to gain the fastest access possible to input events from the keyboard, mouse, joystick and soundcard.

• Optionally define minimum and maximum response times and deliver custom message screens for each when violated.

• Collect multiple response times on a single trial.

• Collect key release response times in addition to key press times.

• Define valid keys for any response.

• Define 'correct' key for any response.

• Optionally require a correct response (see the IAT sample).

Input Options

• Keyboard, mouse, and joystick input for single keypress or button responses.

• Short open ended (fill-in-the-blank) responses.

• Voice responses via microphone connected to your soundcard (ask us about a test you can do to see if your sound card can handle it).

• Option of saving voice responses as wav files on your hard drive.

• Continuous joystick motion.

• TTL signals can be read from a defined port to gather data from external equipment.

Stimulus Presentation

• Create as many different displays as you need for any given trial.

• Play sound files.

• Can handle multiple simultaneous and/or sequential sound files, with control over left/right panning and frequency (Hz). Easily synchronized with visual stimuli.

• Send precisely synchronized TTL signals to communicate with external equipment (e.g., another computer controlling physiological equipment).

• Present subject's own responses to open ended questions as stimuli in the same session.

• Easily create full screens of instructions with formatted text.

• Create multiple style settings with choices of fonts and display colors.

• Present full color graphics that can be as large as full screen and in any resolution from 640x480 to 1024x768.

• Present multiple images and/or text in succession or simultaneously.

• Superimpose custom graphics you make (e.g., special rating scales) over any other image or text. Great for pretesting and rating visual stimuli.

• Capture screens from Microsoft PowerPoint and other presentation software and present them as stimulus or instruction screens in your experiment.

• Precisely locate images and text with flexible and easy to use alignment options.

• Display of stimulus screens is synchronized with the monitor’s refresh rate resulting in highly controlled presentation rates.

• Enter stimulus presentation times in milliseconds. DirectRT will determine the screen refresh rate and will present the stimulus for the number of screen refreshes that will comes closest to your specified interval. All actual display times are written to a log file for each session.

Randomization and Trial Structure

• Randomize trials within a single block.

• Randomize the order that blocks of trials are presented.

• Randomly select which items from a set are presented.

• Extremely flexible trial design which can change from one trial to the next.

• Define stimuli directly in the input file or refer to stimulus lists.

• Access stimuli from lists sequentially, randomly, or randomly without replacement.

• Create scale responses and multiple choice questions in any format.

• Skip pattern capability when a particular key is pressed on any trial.

• Jump capability -Depending on which key is pressed you can have DirectRT jump to different events (e.g., such as a feedback sequence) and then resume where it left off.

• Option of self-paced or time-limited responses.

• Repeat trials for which stimuli were randomly selected at run-time.

Display

• Create scale responses and multiple choice questions in any format.

• Easily create full screens of instructions with formatted text.

• Present full color graphics that can be as large as full screen in any resolution from 640x480 to 1600x1200 and beyond.

• Present multiple images and/or text in succession or simultaneously.

• Superimpose custom graphics you make (e.g., special rating scales) over any other image or text. Great for pretesting and rating visual stimuli.

• Capture screens from Microsoft PowerPoint and other presentation software and present them as stimulus or instruction screens in your experiment.

• Precisely locate images and text with flexible and easy to use alignment options.

• Create multiple style settings with choices of fonts and display colors .

Data

• Writes data to an easy-to-analyze ASCII file.

• Add optional variables to the data file that identify within subject trial conditions-makes for much easier analysis.

• Writes all data into a single file that can be imported straight into Excel or SPSS.

• Includes a utility to easily merge data files collected on different computers.

• Produces two data files per run-one that is simplified and easy to use for most purposes and a more detailed ‘log’ version that records everything including actual stimulus presentation times so you can ensure that your system is capable of achieving the timing you need.

Other Features

• Easily modify and re-use your input files experiments.

• You don’t have to learn a new editor! Do everything from your favorite spreadsheet application (e.g., Excel, Lotus, Quattro). If you know how to use one of these, then you already know how to edit DirectRT input files.

• Also works great in combination with DirectRT (versions 2000 and later). Just drop a DirectRT session into any DirectRT questionnaire. DirectRT will ask DirectRT to execute the session and will pass along the current subject and condition IDs. When DirectRT is finished, DirectRT will resume where it left off. This is a great way to assign multiple DirectRT input files as a function of between subject factors.

• Runs easily from a command line prompt so you can call the session and execute it seamlessly from your within own programs. You would never know you left your own program.

• Context sensitive help such that pressing F1 at any time will help you with what you are currently doing.

• Easy-to-use intuitive interface--no programming code necessary.

• Resolution independent: compatible with screen displays from 640x480 to 1024x768.