| Program Name |
Powerlab |
PsyScope |
PsyScript AppleScript |
MatLab |
E-Prime |
DirectRT |
Superlab |
| general comments |
only available for classic on the mac, no intention of porting it to
OS X. |
workgroup is at work on an OS X beta release, intend to have it out
by spring 2004, I bet it shows up in 2005. |
byzantine and obscure. |
technically sophistoicated, powerful, only for those with programming
experience. Very good with visual stimuli. |
All mac development has been suspended indefinitely. The standard for
others to meet, apparently. |
|
|
| website |
http://www.adinstruments.com/ |
http://psy.ck.sissa.it/ - http://psyscope.psy.cmu.edu/ |
http://www.maccs.mq.edu.au/~tim/psyscript/ |
http://www.mathworks.com/products/ |
http://www.pstnet.com/e-prime/default.htm |
http://www.empirisoft.com/directrt/ |
www.superlab.com |
| Operating System |
OS X for Macs in
classic mode |
Macs - OS7 to OS9 |
PowerMac 8.5 or better |
Macs and PCs |
Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP NOT win95 or even win98 soon
I think.. |
Windows 2000/XP |
Windows and Macs |
| Cost |
|
free? |
free |
Matlab is expensive; Psychtoolbox is free |
$695 each, $3000 for 5, or a 10 person minimum software license for
departments only |
$475 Basic the Workstations are 175$ each. (1st included) |
single license is $595, and it is $1800 for 5 licenses (educational
prices); also information on http://www.cedrus.com/ordering/usa.htm
|
| Learnability |
|
deceptively easy |
easy |
training classes available |
relatively easy to learn, built-in tutorial and experiment wizard |
Quick like eprime |
it's not too difficult - there is a manual |
| Ease of use/coding |
|
|
"more convoluted and weird than Matlab" |
have to know how to code, no GUIs |
very easy to use once you know it except for visual basic scripting
for which you need to know how to program. |
easy. Not as expandable as Eprime however. |
you'll be able to create a superlab script file through Excel, which
makes things easier |
| trigger for scanner? |
|
|
|
|
yes |
|
|
| technical support |
|
none, but mailing list |
yes; also mailing lists |
yes |
yes (about 24-48 hour turnaround time, not always helpful though);
also mailing lists. |
yes very quick and good. You talk to the author. |
yes, they are quite helpful and nice |
| generally used/ updated? |
|
used often |
has not been worked on for over a year |
yes |
used by many PC researchers |
http://www.empirisoft.com/customers.htm |
used by many PC researchers; updates expected in the summer |
| timing? |
|
not good |
good |
unknown |
very good |
very good |
good |
| pros |
|
use of GUI's (not complete); use text, pictures, sounds, movies; saves
data files; use of Button Box |
full programming language |
core mathematics and advanced graphical tools for data analysis, visualization,
and algorithm and application development; can generate simple stimuli
such as lines, color patches, etc. Favored by psychophysics community |
GUI; text, wav, supports e-basic coding, .bmp figures, list-use; supporting
data-analysis packages; data exportable into excel |
GUI. Uses excel lists instead of an internal spreadsheet. |
Great for presenting audio and visual stimuli. A list of new features
can be found at: www.superlab.com/v3/new_features.htm |
| cons |
|
still under development for OS X; can't run some complex scripts; buggy;
poor randomization rountines; cannot generate stimuli; is only appropriate
for simple experiments |
|
no GUIs |
Complex stimuli ordering hard to accomplish without
extra code. Not for Macs yet, doesn’t show videos, |
GUI is a little convoluted. |
new versions will not be released til the summer of 2004 |
| Where developed |
|
Carnegie Mellon by Jonathan Cohen, Matthew Flatt, Brian MacWhinney
and Jefferson Provost |
Mike Tarr and Lawrence D'Oliviero |
|
PITT - by Walt Scheider |
empiresoft -NYC |
|
