Hi Ian, I have a little experience in this area, and while Python indeed does fit the bill for cross-platform it does have its own set of drawbacks:
-Time: You mentioned that you're recording response time by key presses: If you're doing a PhD you'll likely need very accurate information, which you most likely won't get from Python. There are various timing issues and inconsistencies in the language (google "Python GIL" or "garbage collection" for various specifics). Although you probably *can* make it work, and do lots of tests to prove that your collected data is accurate and verifyable, perhaps its not the easy route. There are various domain specific languages set up for this kind of thing, you mentioned LiveCode : I'm not sure it has the timing critical elements that you'll find are most likely necessary for your project. I would advise you to look at languages / enviroments that are designed for writing psychology experiments: I'm an open source guy, so will advise starting here :) http://pebl.sourceforge.net Perhaps the best "next step" is to get some details on how timing-accurate your data will need to be, and how you can best collect that data based on that? HTH, -Harry PS: I'm doing low-latency real-time audio programming, which is extremely timing dependent, and hence I just can't use Python for the audio processing - its too slow. That said, python is very powerful to use for writing glue code / code that isn't timing critical : like a menu that allows you choose which test / experiment to run, etc etc.. --
