After all the glowing reports above, a note of dissent is in order. Let's see if Empirisoft dares to keep this in here.
Shortcomings of DirectRT include:
Shortcomings aside, DirectRT clearly remains a superior platform for a select class of experimental psychology researchers engaged in a select subset of psychological work. But for many others, DirectRT will not do at all. Fortunately, plenty of other products will. Despite the banner on Empirisoft's web site, DirectRT is *not* THE way to do computer research. If your experimental designs by their nature entail any sort of computational complexity, you will need to look beyond DirectRT.
- Cannot do loops. E.g., cannot repeat a stimulus or trial an indefinite number of times until the subject gives a correct response (see forum threads support.empirisoft.com/showthread.php?t=975, support.empirisoft.com/showthread.php?t=698).
- Cannot do arithmetic. E.g., cannot halve a stimulus parameter on response success, and double it on failure, in order to derive a threshold value. (And do not even imagine using anything like Maximum Likelihood Estimation for adjusting stimulus parameters during the experiment.)
- Cannot process strings.
- Cannot draw. E.g., cannot draw a circle of arbitrary diameter calculated during the experiment.
- Cannot stop sound playback once started (User's Guide 3.12, p. 30).
- Displays a blank, black screen during every intertrial interval (see forum thread support.empirisoft.com/showthread.php?t=37).
David McFarlane, Systems Designer
Dept. Psychology, Michigan State University
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of my employer or anyone else associated with me.)