AN ADVANCED LABORATORY SYSTEM FOR PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY

THIS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP A SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGISTS TO DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT COMPLETE EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES. IT WILL INCLUDE COMPREHENSIVE STIMULUS PRESENTATION, DATA ACQUISITION, AND ANALYSIS CAPABILITIES, ALL FULLY INTEGRATED INTO A SINGLE SYSTEM. USING A PERSONAL COMPUTER, AN INVESTIGATOR WILL GRAPHICALLY CONSTRUCT AND RUN AN ENTIRE EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE FROM ICONS ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN. NO PROGRAMMING OR CIRCUIT DESIGN SKILLS WILL BE NEEDED. THE SYSTEM'S MAJOR ADVANTAGE IS THAT IT PROVIDES AN UNUSUALLY SIMPLE, SELF-CONTAINED WAY TO DEVELOP AND RUN AN ENTIRE EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE FROM CONCEPTION THROUGH ANALYSIS. THE SYSTEM COMBINES PRECISE TIMING CONTROL WITH A SELF-EVIDENT, NONPROGRAMMING SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT. THIS MAKES POSSIBLE THE INTERACTION OF EXPERIMENT STIMULI WITH REAL-TIME DATA ANALYSIS. THE SYSTEM WILL BE FULLY INTEGRATED, BUT NOT CLOSED; IT WILL ACCOMMODATE STANDARD HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE FROM MANY VENDORS. IN PHASE I, THE SYSTEM WILL BE DESIGNED AND A LOW-LEVEL PROTOTYPE WILL BE BUILT AND TESTED. IN PHASE II, THE COMPLETE SYSTEM WILL BE IMPLEMENTED.