Graphical Experiment Builder Applications for Neuroscientists

Pablo Ruisoto, PhD, Alberto Bellido, BA, Javier Ruiz, PhD, Juan A. Juanes, PhD, Silvia Vaca, PhD

Porto, October 7th, 2015

Background

Building and running experiments is a complex and frequent task for psychologists and neuroscientists.

- Focus on the study of human responses to stimuli

- Requieres control settings and measurements of both accuracy and response time

BackgroundSCRIPTING

MatLab

Background

PsytoolkitE- Prime 2 Psycope

GRAPHICAL INTERFACESSCRIPTING

AimTo compare two of the main graphical application packages for building and running experiments, from the perspective of a new user with no previous knowledge

PROPIETARY VS OPENSOURCE

CODING VS POINT & CLICK

WIN, MAC, LINUX ONLY VS CROSS-PLATFORM

PsychoPy

OpenSesame

Methodology

OpenSesame

PsychoPy

Experiment instruction Stimuli presentation Collecting responses

PsychoPy

Flow area

Component areaExperiment design area

PsychoPyTarget properties Response properties

PsychoPyVariable specification

Opensesame

Experiment tree-shape structure

Opensesame

Spacial arrangement and properties of stimuli

Opensesame

Response properties and variable specification

Opensesame

Response properties

ConclusionsForms

Consent form

ConclusionsOpenSesame PsychoPy

Forms by Point & Click by CodingTimeline display Order (tree display) True timelineSpatial Stimuli

display Yes (skethpad) No Reaction time registration Yes Yes

Accuracy registration Yes Yes (by xlsx matrix)Demos Yes YesSupport Yes Yes

Eye tracker Yes YesResponse boxes Yes Yes

Scripts python pythonBugs debug window error code

ConclusionsOpenSesame PsychoPy

Forms by Point & Click by CodingTimeline display Order (tree display) True timelineSpatial Stimuli

display Yes (skethpad) No Reaction time registration Yes Yes

Accuracy registration Yes Yes (by xlsx matrix)Demos Yes YesSupport Yes Yes

Eye tracker Yes YesResponse boxes Yes Yes

Scripts python pythonBugs debug window error code

Conclusions

ConclusionsOpenSesame PsychoPy

Forms by Point & Click by CodingTimeline display Order (tree display) True timelineSpatial Stimuli

display Yes (skethpad) No Reaction time registration Yes Yes

Accuracy registration Yes Yes (by xlsx matrix)Demos Yes YesSupport Yes Yes

Eye tracker Yes YesResponse boxes Yes Yes

Scripts python pythonBugs debug window error code

ConclusionsOpenSesame PsychoPy

Forms by Point & Click by CodingVisual timing

accuracy + (by milisec) ++ (by frames)

Timeline display Order (tree display) True timelineSpatial Stimuli

display Yes (skethpad) No Reaction time registration Yes Yes

Accuracy registration Yes Yes (by xlsx matrix)Demos Yes YesSupport Yes Yes

Eye tracker Yes YesResponse boxes Yes Yes

Scripts python pythonBugs debug window error code

ConclusionsOpenSesame PsychoPy

Forms by Point & Click by CodingTimeline display Order (tree display) True timelineSpatial Stimuli

display Yes (skethpad) No

Reaction time registration Yes Yes

Accuracy registration Yes Yes (by xlsx matrix)Demos Yes YesSupport Yes Yes

Eye tracker Yes YesResponse boxes Yes Yes

Scripts python pythonBugs debug window error code

ConclusionsOpenSesame PsychoPy

Forms by Point & Click by CodingTimeline display Order (tree display) True timelineSpatial Stimuli

display Yes (skethpad) No

Reaction time registration Yes Yes

Accuracy registration Yes Yes (by xlsx matrix)Demos Yes YesSupport Yes Yes

Eye tracker Yes YesResponse boxes Yes Yes

Scripts python pythonBugs debug window error code

Graphical Experiment Builder Applications for Neuroscientists

Pablo Ruisoto, PhD, Alberto Bellido, BA, Javier Ruiz, PhD, Juan A. Juanes, PhD, Silvia Vaca, PhD

Porto, October 7th, 2015

Borton, J.K.S., Oakes, M.A., Van Wyk, M.E., Zink, T.A. 2007. Using PsyScope to conduct IAT experiments on Macintosh computers. Behavior Research Methods, 39(4), 789-796.

Peirce, J.W. 2007. PsychoPy - Psychophysics software in Python. J Neurosci Methods, 162(1-2), 8-13. doi:  10.1016/j.jneumeth.2006.11.017

Peirce, J.W. 2009. Generating stimuli for neuroscience using PsychoPy. Front Neuroinform, 2(2). doi: 10.3389/neuro.11.010.2008

Mathôt, S., Schreij, D., & Theeuwes, J. 2012. OpenSesame: An open-source, graphical experiment builder for the social sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 44(2), 314-324. doi:10.3758/s13428-011-0168-7

References