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New Features At a Glance |
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For the most part, the v2008 features are all optional. To ensure stability, most of the new features you'll see were developed and beta tested during the release of v2006. Likewise, as a user of v2008 you will have the option of accessing the new beta features being developed for the upcoming 2010 version. You can follow the new changes as they develop by visiting support.empirisoft.com and clicking on DirectRT Version History. Note About Backward Compatibility If you are accustomed to using a previous version of DirectRT (v2000-v2006), you should be able to continue using v2008 without having to learn anything new. v2008 is backward compatible so that DirectRT experiments from all previous versions should run the same as they always have without requiring modification. Of course, be sure to confirm this for yourself with any old experiments prior to scheduling participants. With that said, here are the new features which you can learn and apply at your own pace. If you're new to DirectRT you can read this section or skip over it. All of this information is located in the appropriate places elsewhere in this manual. This section is intended for the more experienced user who just wants to know what's different between the major releases. Have fun and let us know if you have any problems or if you have requests for additional features or fixes. What's New in DirectRT v2008
Wouldn't it be cool if DirectRT could display html like MediaLab? Specify a borderless html window as a stimulus--locating it and sizing it as if it were a movie or animation file--but it could be live and interactive--either local or on the web. Like MediaLab, you could optionally embed html forms for elaborate open ended and survey questioning--and DirectRT would intercept the posted data and write it to the data file--that would rock. alphanumeric subject IDS selective use of correct.yt randomization constraints apply wgr and bgr to seperate sections
2006.1.16, Jan-13-06
v2006.1.22, posted April 18, 2006
You can also view the interactive help files online here: www.empirisoft.com/directrt/help/_helpcontents.htm
v2006.2.13, not posted yet Allows you to echo input codes to a port of your choice via TTL signals. To do so, create a file called ttlEcho.txt (see example attached below) and place it in your folder along with the main input file. The text file should contain the port address (as a decimal value, not hex), and the time (ms) for which to send the signal. Code: 888,10 Now let's say that the subject presses the space bar (code = 57) on a trial where that's a valid response. DirectRT will immediately send "57" to port 888 for 10ms. Code: rt:57,aud,rec,5000 In this example, DirectRT will record for up to 5000ms or the point at which the subject (or experimenter) hits the spacebar--whichever comes first. This will only work with fixed length audio RTs. See example stroop manual.csv attached below which can be placed in the voice RT sample folder: Code: C:\DirectRT\Samples\5 other features\12 voice responses stroop
v2006.2.15, not yet posted
v2006.2.18, not posted yet
v2006.2.19, Not posted yet
v2006.2.23, Posted Dec 19th, 2006 Code: ~Your subject ID is var(subj). Would produce the following text: Your subject ID is 34. Code: !mysoundvar(cond) Would result in playing the sound file mysound4.wav v2006.2.27, Not yet posted
Was new in v2008 Online Support We have created online forums for the 2006 versions of both DirectRT and MediaLab. Just enter support.empirisoft.com in your web browser. We are regularly posting questions and answers regarding the new versions. You can search it like a database to get help with issues that have come up since the creation of these help files. You may also register (it's fast and free) in order to download files, post your own questions or share your experience and experiments with other users. Enhanced Display Stability Version 2006 substantially reduces cases of screen flicker, display artifacts (screen junk) and other system based disruptions that can occur during sessions. Automatic Detection of Available Monitor Resolutions When DirectRT started out there weren't so many monitors resolutions and so we simply offered a fixed list. Now DirectRT automatically detects the display resolutions your system can handle and will allow you to run sessions using any one of them. More Info Better Sound Capture Quality We've increased the sampling rate of voice recordings from 11,000hz to 22,000hz making for better sounding files while keeping overall file size reasonable. Enhanced Input From External Equipment DirectRT can now read continuous data input from an external device and write these data to a file with current time and variable stamps as well as subject and condition IDs. Record Mouse Clicks DirectRT is now capable of receiving mouse cursor input using "click area" codes that function just like keycodes. Assign codes to regions of the screen. When the mouse clicks on any given region, it will trigger the keycode assigned to it. Works with most standard mice. Also works with light guns and touchscreens. More Info "No-Response" Available Via "-1" Response Code You can now list -1 as a valid key code when not responding is a valid response option. DirectRT will act as if a "no-response" key is pressed at the moment the maximum time allowed for the response has been met. The -1 code will act just like any other keycode in terms of indicating it as a correct response, setting up response contingencies and such. Especially handy for tests like the GNAT. More Info Random Pairings Made Easy In the past it was difficult to randomly choose a stimulus from a list and then subsequently present a paired or matched stimulus from different list. DirectRT now makes this easy by allowing you to say "pick the item from this list that matches the position of the item I just randomly chose from that list!" Say for example, you want to use a randomly chosen prime/target pairing, where primes and targets are each in their own lists. Choose a random prime as usual by requesting $prime. Then simply ask for &target^-1. Using the & symbol you are requesting a specific item from a list. The -1 value tells DirectRT to use the position equal to the position of the last random stimulus chosen! Use greater negative values to match random picks from farther back. More Info End Trials Early Using the "!!" Symbol When using a min-max value such as "0-1000!" you are telling DirectRT to stop waiting for an RT when 1000ms has past. However there has never been a way distinguish whether DirectRT should continue with the remaining elements of the current trial or break off and go directly to the next trial. Now you have the option of being extremely emphatic by specifying "0-1000!!"--the "!!" will tell DirectRT to exit the trial as a whole immediately. More Info Monitor Joystick Activity DURING an RT In earlier versions, you could monitor the motion of a joystick for a specified period of time (e.g., RT:JOY2000) and you could measure a discrete response time with a joystick (RT:JOY), but you couldn't do both--at least not at the same time. Now you can. Simply indicate the number of milliseconds you want to monitor as a negative value such as RT:JOY-2000. This will tell DirectRT that you are taking a discrete RT but that you want it to also record any motion activity for up 2000ms. More Info Open Ended Response Contingencies A new feature of the 2006 version is that you can add skipping and jumping to trials based on open-ended response contingencies. It works just like it does for closed-ended responses. That means you can define correct and incorrect text responses and set up skips and jumps as if they were key codes. There are a couple nice math test samples to illustrate. More Info Meta Commands--Tracks Events Between Trials Version 2006 introduces the Meta Command. These are commands you can use that span multiple trials. Simply create a !Meta column in your input file and place any meta commands you like there. For example, say you want the session to end 5 minutes after the first trial begins. Simply enter "end:300000" in the Meta column for the first trial. Or you might want the session to skip to a particular block after a fixed time expires--you would enter">300:60000" to tell DirectRT to skip to trial 300 after 60 seconds has elapsed from this point. We'll be adding new meta commands as we think of them and feel free to request one. More Info Multiple RTs with a Single RT Command In some cases, you may want to accept two responses during a single RT window. Now you can define multiple sets of valid keys--one to represent each keypress that is allowed during a single RT interval. More Info InputRT Mouse and Keyboard Recorder, v2006 beta We have developed a companion program to DirectRT called InputRT which can record every keypress and mouseclick with millisecond accuracy--while you are running other programs! This module can run in the background while you are running virtually any other activity--it will unobtrusively record the beginning and end of every keystroke and every mouseclick and save the data to a spreadsheet data file for later review. InputRT v2006 is a free add on by request for all DirectRT v2006 users. Data Reduction We have been working on an Excel-based utility to help reduce individual DirectRT data files (or any vertical data files) into a single, one row per subject data file for easier analysis. This program provides options to block, recode and calculate new variables. This utility will be freely available to DirectRT users. To run the program, select "Reduce Data" from the Tools menu. Will require version 2006.2.20 or later. Was New in v2004 Use Random Values Random number function allows for random SOAs and display times--use it anywhere you want bounded random values in your input file. More Info Play Videos Play video files with extremely high precision just like any other stimulus--support for MPEG, AVI and other video types supported by the Windows Media Player. More Info Play Animations Embed animated gifs just as if they were videos with the same high precision More Info Data from Presentation-Only Trials Option to write trial information to the data file even when RTs are not measured. More Info VoiceRTs Enhanced Voice RT capability--works great now on most machines with a basic soundcard. More options for stimulus control and allows for simultaneous keyboard input to code verbal responses. More Info Stimulus Control Optionally clear stimuli from the screen while still waiting for an RT, or immediately after a response when using a fixed response window. More Info Fixed Response Window Allow for constant response time window independent of the RT. More Info Data Protection Increased protection against overwriting existing data and data written at the end of session even if it ends prematurely. More Info Screen Size Support for a greater array of screen resolutions up to 1600x1200 and beyond. More Info Trial Capacity Greater capacity for complex trials, up to 99 stimuli per trial. Was New in v2002 Request a short open ended response You are now able to gather short fill-in-the-blank type responses. More Info Record a voice response and reaction time via the microphone Connect a microphone to your soundcard and you're able to collect voice activated response times. With a simple option, you can have the responses saved as sound files on your hard drive so you can listen to them later for verification. Record and save verbal responses from 100ms to 5 minutes in length. More Info Record continuous joystick movement for a specified duration Inspired by approach/avoidance research, you can track the continuous motion of a joystick while a visual or auditory stimulus is presented. DirectRT will track and record the x and y coordinates of the joystick at 10ms intervals. More Info Wait for TTL signal from an external device (version 2002.3 and later) Connect external response hardware to your computer. If the external hardware can send a byte value to a port that DirectRT can read (e.g., the parallel port), then you can specify such these values as response options. More Info Collect multiple response times per trial No longer limited to recording a single response time per trial. Now request as many response times as you need. They will all be written to the extended "log" data file. More Info Record KeyRelease time in addition to subsequent KeyPress time Instruct subjects to hold the spacebar (or other key) down when a stimulus is presented and then hit another when a stimulus is presented. Now you can record the response time to let go of the first key as well as the time to hit the second key. More Info Require correct response (e.g., IAT) You can now require a correct response from subjects before they can continue. Just like they do in the IAT. You can specify the message (if any) that appears as incorrect keys are struck. More Info Response feedback (display subject's response on screen) You can now display subject's response onscreen as visual feedback. This makes it clear to the subject that they have hit the intended key. More Info Use mouse buttons for input A simple alternative to the keyboard for dichotomous responding. More Info Record discrete joystick responses A simple alternative to continuous monitoring of the joystick, you use the basic directions of the joystick as discrete responses (e.g., up, down, up-right, etc.). 8, 45-degree regions have their own codes which can be used just like keycodes. More Info Play sounds files DirectRT allows you to play sound files and to synchronize them with other events and stimuli in your session. You can control three aspects of the how the sound files are played: Frequency, Pan (left vs. right) and Volume. More Info Use subjects own responses as subsequent stimuli You can use subjects" responses as stimuli on later trials. This is especially useful when you want to personalize stimuli that are used in a task. More Info Clear the screen during a response time interval While waiting for a response from the subject, you can now clear a stimulus from the screen after a fixed interval--even if the subject has not yet responded. More Info Use randomly selected stimuli again on later trials Use a stimulus from a previous trial without knowing exactly what that stimulus will be when you design your input file. This could happen for example, when a stimulus is randomly determined on one trial but then you want to repeat that trial. More Info Send TTL signals to external equipment for physiological synchronization (e.g., SCAN) In order to synchronize events in DirectRT with external equipment (e.g., physiological equipment, other computers), you can send TTL (Transistor-Transistor Logic) signals through any of your computer's accessible ports (e.g., parallel or serial ports). More Info Implicit Association Test (IAT) sample Mmm, mm. Just like Tony used to make 'em. One word of advice for beginners-don't start here! At least try the tutorials first. This one'll make your head hurt. More Info
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