Customer Reviews (case 22515)

[jarvis24]

We often look at effort or time on a task, and MediaLab has a built-in feature that unobtrusively allows us to get timed data for any aspect of our study - everything from time spent reading stimulus materials to completion of individual dependent measures. My graduate students have found programming in MediaLab to be very easy to learn. They have been able to begin running studies within days of being introduced to the program. It has cut the amount of time required to prepare an experiment in half; we no longer need to create multiple versions of the experimental materials or waste time at the copy machine to produce them. It has eliminated the need for data entry or conversion - the data are automatically stored in SPSS and Excel formats and ready for analysis. We also have noticed that research participants seem to be more engaged in experiments using MediaLab. MediaLab has greatly facilitated the research being conducted in my lab.

Gifford Weary,
Ohio State University

[jarvis24]

Perhaps the most exciting thing about MediaLab software is its potential to expand the types of research questions we can address. MediaLab gives researchers the full benefits of interactivity -- both in presenting information and in assessing responses.

Sharon Shavitt
University of Illinois, UC

[jarvis24]

MediaLab and DirectRT have greatly improved the efficiency of work in my lab. I'm able to present a wide variety of experimental stimuli, including video, audio, still photos, web pages, etc. in a very precise and controlled environment. I've also found that I have had a better success rate, with my experiments being more likely to result in good data. I attribute this to greater control in presenting experimental stimuli, and less room for experimenter variability in the presentation of information.

Bryan Gibson,
Central Michigan University

[jarvis24]

I have worked with a variety of experimental design software packages in the past, and I have found DirectRT to be the most user-friendly program that I have encountered. Within hours, I had sophisticated programs up and running. DirectRT’s ability to record very accurate response times from a Windows environment is a very nice asset, and its ability to record voice activated reaction times and actually record and save the responses is wonderful. Also, the support offered by Empirisoft was extremely timely and helpful. I highly recommend DirectRT to anyone who needs to design a reaction time task. I have found this software to be easy to use, efficient, and accurate.

Michael Suvak,
The National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

[jarvis24]

I began to feel at ease with MediaLab after having spent just 30 minutes fooling around with it. The user interface is, oxymoronically, simultaneously intuitive and complex. That is, MediaLab is intuitive enough to be employed almost immediately, even by users with little or no knowledge of computer programming (unlike competing programs like *****); however, MediaLab also offers more than enough user options to allow the development of very complex multimedia experiments. I particularly like MediaLab's data output features: MediaLab provides researchers with Microsoft Excel, SPSS Syntax, and SPSS data files. This feature is an excellent time-saver and makes the transition from data collection to data analysis a breeze.

Patrick Vargas,
University of Illinois, UC

[jarvis24]

When I first saw what MediaLab could do, I was afraid that it would take an advanced degree in computer science to operate. Much to my surprise, the program is highly intuitive, requiring only a general understanding of Windows to learn. MediaLab offers researchers the ability to easily and quickly design multimedia experiments that would take far longer (and a far more in-depth understanding of computer programming) to create in any other way. It also makes data entry a snap, as the data files are automatically created as an Excel or SPSS file.

George Bizer,
Eastern Illinois University

[jarvis24]

Essentially, MediaLab is a powerful tool for research. The flexibility and diversity in the types of stimuli that can be presented and the types of response options make it an excellent program for many different types of psychological research. The variety of data output formats ensures that the data will be easily available, regardless of which format you prefer. This also saves a lot of time and resources that could be spent on data entry. This program is essential for psychological research labs.

Kristen N. Moreno,
Northwestern University