Stephen Truhon asks:
>>Our psychology lab is nearly done. My colleagues and I are trying to
>>determine what to add. We will have 10 computers with standard software.
>>We are attempting to write a grant proposal to get further equipment. So,
>>what should a basic psychology lab have?
I would make sure you have a good statistical package such as SPSS. We
have both SPSS and SAS but the students mainly use SPSS. (The grad
students use SAS because that is what our stat department uses for its stat
classses.)
Software for the presentation of experiments is also good. We have ERTS,
but it the license is pricey. It does have the good feature of being
fairly easy to use to create new paradigms. The oly problems I have
encountered have been with paradigms in which I want to randomize the
number of events in a trial (like the duration of the retention interval in
a Brown-Peterson task). I tried to program a demo of the Brown-Peterson
task and got stuck with the variable-duration retention interval. ERTS
is now marketing a package for classroom teaching called ERTSLab (they have
a web site) but schools are expected to purchase the licenses for student
use and they must be renewed each year. Mel Lab and PsychScope have merged
forces to create a similar paradigm-creation package called e-Prime, but
every year the release is "pending." I've seen demonstrations of the beta
versions and it will be a very user-friendly package if they ever get it
off the ground.
Sniffy the virtual rat is now expanded and on CD ROM. I have a demo copy
but haven't had time to review it yet. (I would only use if for demos in my
learning class - I don't spend more than 4 weeks on conditioning.)
I'd like to hear about suggestions that others make. There is always the
possibiity that something new and wonderful has appeared.
Claudia Stanny
________________________________________________________
Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Department of Psychology Phone: (850) 474 - 3163
University of West Florida FAX: (850) 857 - 6060
Pensacola, FL 32514 - 5751
Web: http://www.uwf.edu/psych/stanny.html
