PsyScope is a

graphical user interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inst ...

(GUI) software program that allows researchers to design and run

psychological experiment Experimental psychology refers to work done by those who apply experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ human participants and animal subjects to study a great many topics, in ...

s. It runs on

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

computers and was originally designed for use with the Mac OS 9 platform. PsyScope was originally developed by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, including Jonathan Cohen, Matthew Flatt,

Brian MacWhinney Brian James MacWhinney (born August 22, 1945) is a Professor of Psychology and Modern Languages at Carnegie Mellon University. He specializes in first and second language acquisition, psycholinguistics, and the neurological bases of language, an ...

, and Jefferson Provost. It has been ported to

Mac OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...

by a group of researchers and programmers coordinated by researchers at

SISSA The International School for Advanced Studies (Italian: ''Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati''; SISSA) is an international, state-supported, post-graduate-education and research institute in Trieste, Italy. SISSA is active in th ...

, Italy and the

Pompeu Fabra University Pompeu Fabra University ( ca, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, UPF, ; es, link=no, Universidad Pompeu Fabra) is a public university located in the city of Barcelona, Catalonia in Spain. The university was created by the Autonomous Government of Catalo ...

, Spain. It is still under active development. The program and its code are freely available under the GNU GPL license. It runs under

, from version 10.7 onward. With respect to its Mac OS 9 incarnation, PsyScope X has a much more complete control of movies and sounds, can interact with the underlying

Unix Unix (; trademarked as UNIX) is a family of multitasking, multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, an ...

environment, and allows researchers to design programs that use several external devices, such as response devices to record participants' responses, or

Evoked potential An evoked potential or evoked response is an electrical potential in a specific pattern recorded from a specific part of the nervous system, especially the brain, of a human or other animals following presentation of a stimulus such as a light f ...

and eye tracking recording devices. It is difficult to estimate exactly how many researchers use the program. However, many researchers in several well respected universities around the world use PsyScope X to generate and run psychology and neuropsychology experiments. Users of PsyScope X can share experiments, tips, and ideas via message boards dedicated to the software.

References

External links

* Psychology experiments Health care software Behavioral experimentation software {{graphics-software-stub