About us§
- Who am I?
- Rebecca Hirst - Science Officer/Consultant and postdoc (research focus multisensory perception)
- Python developers
- Jon Peirce, Todd Parsons, Matthew Cuttone, Sol Simpson
- Java Script developers
- Alain Pitiot, Thomas Pronk Sotiri Bakagiannis
About us§
- Credits:
- many other people have contributed to the PsychoPy project (Jeremy Gray, Mike MacAskill, Richard Höchenberger, Sol Simpson being the biggest contributors)
- Nottingham University have been paying Jons salary while PsychoPy was written
- Wellcome Trust recently gave us a grant to improve this a LOT
About the workshop§
Not aiming to teach you all of PsychoPy
Hopefully give you some ideas about what’s possible
Getting to know PsychoPy§
What is PsychoPy?§
It’s Psychology software in Python
- PsychoPy is several things:
- a library for use in Python scripts
- an editor including Python to edit scripts
- an application with a graphical user interface (GUI) for building experiments
It’s, itself, entirely written in Python
Goal of PsychoPy§
The aim is to enable scientists to run as wide a range of experiments as possible, as easily as possible, with standard computer hardware.
- A single piece of software:
- precise enough for psychophysics
- intuitive enough for undergraduate psychology
- flexible enough for everything else
- capable of running studies in the lab or online
Choice of interface§
It’s hard to make something easy enough for undergrads and novices but flexible enough for everything else.
PsychoPy provides two main options, for programmers and non-programmers, but there are also ways to combine the two.
PsychoPy is written in the Python programming language
Choice of interface§
The Coder view is used to create experiments from Python scripts
Choice of interface§
The Builder view is used to create experiments visually
Why do people Code?§
- To implement more complex experimental designs/procedures(?)
- To break out of the current trial structure or hardware drawing loop cycle
- To know exactly what the code is doing(?)
- To program things that aren’t psychology experiments. (e.g. stats, simulations, analyses etc.)
Why do people Build?§
- It is far faster to develop experiments!
- You can still understand (and build on) your experiment next year
- You’ll probably have fewer bugs
- Code Components can be used in nearly all places where Builder isn’t enough
- Your Builder experiment will also compile to a web (JS/HTML) experiment!
What do we do?§
I (Becca) and Jon still use both Builder and Coder on a regular basis.
My experiments I are almost always in Builder, with added Code Components. I don’t ever break out and switch to pure code. I use code for other things (e.g. making my ‘conditions’ .csv files, making stimuli)
Going further§
- Builder interface:
- Building Experiments in PsychoPy by Peirce and MacAskill (2018, Sage Publications)
- Python programming (for experimental psych):
- Programming Visual Illusions for Everyone by Marco Bertamimi (2017, Springer)
- Python for Experimental Psychologists by Edwin Dalmaijer (2017, Routledge)
So, let’s go on and learn some Building better experiments…