MediaLab vs. DirectRT

[I][Edited by Moderator][/I]

I used to use MediaLab for social psychology experiment few years ago. Now I am conducting cognitive experiments and not sure if I need MediaLab or DirectRT.

In a typical experiment, I need to present 80 single words. Some words are presented once and other twice. Some words that are presented twice repeat right after the first presentation and others only after several other words are presented (20/40). So I have complex orders for presenting the stimuli, and I care about randomization and counterbalancing.
I also need to collect strings as inputs.

I care about presentation time only in the level of seconds. I don't have any problem with having my data file with different row for each trail.

I want the design of the experiment to be as easy as possible. Which software would be easier to use?

Both MediaLab and DirectRT would be able to handle your requirements here, however, MediaLab may do a better job at handling this particular experiment.

The advantages to using MediaLab in this situation include the ability to harness .XLS files through MediaLab's [I]Advanced Features[/I]. With this feature, it will be easier to do -exactly- what you want with your experiment. Aside from that, MediaLab also offers a large variety of tools to make data output and experiment management much easier to deal with.

The advantages to using DirectRT would include the ability to directly render to the user's screen (meaning fast and precise display), time inputs to their lowest and most precise unit of measurement, and the ability to manage both the data and input files through Excel.

See also:

[URL]http://www.empirisoft.com/Support/showthread.php?t=15[/URL]
[URL]http://www.empirisoft.com/Support/showthread.php?t=17[/URL]