The goals in using Python are similar to those in using Matlab ®. This downside has been clearest in the company's unwillingness at times to support the Apple platform. It is expensive and, as a proprietary software solution, comes without source code which leaves the science community heavily reliant on its customer support services. Matlab ® does have certain downsides however. This has the advantages of being a relatively platform-independent language with a fairly simple syntax and numerous high-level libraries. Many neuroscience labs around the world are using Matlab ® (The MathWorks Inc., Massachusetts, USA) for the generation of experimental stimuli via Psychtoolbox ( Brainard, 1997 Pelli, 1997a,b) and for data analysis. For experiments that need to draw a large number of stimuli (such as random dot displays or global form patterns) a more powerful graphics card, a fast CPU, and plenty of memory can all result in performance gains. For experiments using a few simple stimuli (such as a pair of Gabor patches and a fixation point) basic versions of these cards or motherboards with built-in graphics processors are likely to suffice. This includes almost every graphics card made by nVidia, ATI and Matrox since the late 1990s, although on the Microsoft platform the user may need to download additional drivers from the graphics card vendor rather than using the ones installed with Windows ®. One of the minimum requirements for PsychoPy is a graphics card that supports OpenGL drivers and multitexturing. The package is highly portable because it uses a minimal amount of compiled (e.g. The necessary Python libraries on which it is based are also available on Linux and some users have reported success on that platform although it has received less complete testing as yet. PsychoPy has been developed predominantly on the Microsoft Windows ® XP platform but has been extensively tested on Mac OS X (10.3 and 10.4) and has been used in experiments on both platforms. These tools are fully platform-independent (for the major operating systems) and can interface freely and simply with an extremely wide range of additional hardware. The result is a set of tools built on top of the Python programming language that makes calls directly to OpenGL graphics libraries. The goal of the project was to produce a package that was entirely free, as easy as possible to use, and based on relatively inexpensive (and preferably vendor-independent) hardware. This paper describes PsychoPy, a new suite of software tools to make it easier to build simple visual and auditory stimuli for neuroscience experiments. Despite the spatial and temporal limitations of the displays ( Bach et al., 1997) and assorted other potential problems ( Bach, 1997 Pelli, 1997a,b Wolf and Deubel, 1997) the variety of stimuli that they can generate with relatively little effort has made them the stimulus presentation method of choice for most neuroscience laboratories. Since the 1980s computers and cathode-ray-tube displays (CRTs) have been used extensively, almost ubiquitously, in visual and cognitive neuroscience experiments. If a user wants to add support for a particular stimulus, analysis or hardware device they can look at the code for existing examples, modify them and submit the modifications back into the package so that the whole community benefits. Most importantly, PsychoPy is highly extensible and the whole system can evolve via user contributions. Tools are provided within the package to allow everything from stimulus presentation and response collection (from a wide range of devices) to simple data analysis such as psychometric function fitting. PsychoPy scripts are designed to be extremely easy to read and write, while retaining complete power for the user to customize the stimuli and environment. PsychoPy is a platform-independent experimental control system written in the Python interpreted language using entirely free libraries. The current paper describes a new free suite of software tools designed to make this task easier, using the latest advances in hardware and software. The vast majority of studies into visual processing are conducted using computer display technology.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |