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DirectRT
v2020 for all versions of Windows is now available! This page provides an overview.
View the online
user's guide. To upgrade, check out licensing
options, or view pricing, please visit our order page. |
Do you have tasks in which you
measure RTs that average less than 1000ms? Do you have tasks in
which stimulus onset and presentation times are seriously expressed
in milliseconds and not seconds? Are you comfortable with
the "blocks of trials" concept? If
so, then you've come to the right place--DirectRT can
dramatically simplify your life.
Powerful and easy to use With DirectRT you can quickly and easily create
reaction time tasks that require precision timing. You will be able to
easily obtain accurate high speed response input from keyboards, mice,
joysticks, microphones and external hardware. Present sound, video, images
and text with exacting precision. You will be amazed at how DirectRT can
make this so easy.
Windows can accomodate precision Windows has traditionally been a very chaotic
environment for precisely controlling the timing of events. The
development of Microsoft’s DirectX has changed all this for psychological
research. DirectX based programs can now manipulate images and sound and
monitor input activity at the millisecond level. All this with incredible
reliability. Dust off your old oscilloscope and see for yourself! DirectRT
is 100% DirectX.
You’ll never go
back DirectRT comes with extensive
on-line help files, an easy-to-follow 100-page manual and an on-line
tutorial with over 40 samples that illustrate simple and advanced techniques.
Using Microsoft Excel as its editor, you can create, copy, paste and
modify trials in no time. Although we now offer millisecond
accurate keyboards and button boxes, DirectRT also works great with most
third party external hardware. Even with a standard USB keyboard, serial
mouse, joystick, or sound card microphone, error is remarkably low. Bottom
line is that DirectRT will help minimize timing error associated with most hardware.
- Timing resolution of 1 millisecond.
- Response timing is synchronized with the
screen display so timing always begins when the screen first begins
to draw (eliminates 10-17 milliseconds of random error).
- Works with Windows to pause all other
system events while timing is taking place. With everything else put
on hold, the highest processing priority possible is given to
DirectRT during the critical time intervals on each trial.
- Uses Microsoft’s DirectX to gain the
fastest access possible to input events from the keyboard, mouse,
joystick and soundcard.
- Optionally define minimum and maximum
response times and deliver custom message screens for each when
violated.
- Collect multiple response times on a single
trial.
- Collect key release response times in
addition to key press times.
- Define valid keys for any response.
- Define 'correct' key for any response.
- Optionally require a correct response (see the IAT sample).
- Keyboard, mouse, and joystick input for single
keypress or button responses.
- Short open ended (fill-in-the-blank) responses.
- Voice responses via microphone connected to
your soundcard (ask us about a test you can do to see if your sound card
can handle it).
- Option of saving voice responses as wav files
on your hard drive.
- Continuous joystick motion.
- TTL signals can be read from a defined port to
gather data from external equipment.
- Create as many different displays as you need
for any given trial.
- Play sound files.
- Can handle multiple simultaneous and/or
sequential sound files, with control over left/right panning and
frequency (Hz). Easily synchronized with visual stimuli.
- Send precisely synchronized TTL signals to
communicate with external equipment (e.g., another computer controlling
physiological equipment).
- Present subject's own responses to open ended
questions as stimuli in the same session.
- Easily create full screens of instructions with
formatted text.
- Create multiple style settings with choices of
fonts and display colors.
- Present full colour graphics that can be as large as full screen and in any resolution supported by your hardware.
- Present multiple images and/or text in
succession or simultaneously.
- Superimpose custom graphics you make (e.g.,
special rating scales) over any other image or text. Great for
pretesting and rating visual stimuli.
- Capture screens from Microsoft PowerPoint and
other presentation software and present them as stimulus or instruction
screens in your experiment.
- Precisely locate images and text with flexible
and easy to use alignment options.
- Display of stimulus screens is synchronized
with the monitor’s refresh rate resulting in highly controlled
presentation rates.
- Enter stimulus presentation times in
milliseconds. DirectRT will determine the screen refresh rate and will
present the stimulus for the number of screen refreshes that will comes
closest to your specified interval. All actual display times are written
to a log file for each session.
- Randomize trials within a single block.
- Randomize the order that blocks of trials are
presented.
- Randomly select which items from a set are
presented.
- Extremely flexible trial design which can
change from one trial to the next.
- Define stimuli directly in the input file or
refer to stimulus lists.
- Access stimuli from lists sequentially,
randomly, or randomly without replacement.
- Create scale responses and multiple choice
questions in any format.
- Skip pattern capability when a particular key
is pressed on any trial.
- Jump capability -Depending on which key is
pressed you can have DirectRT jump to different events (e.g., such as a
feedback sequence) and then resume where it left off.
- Option of self-paced or time-limited responses.
- Repeat trials for which stimuli were randomly
selected at run-time.
- Create scale responses and multiple choice
questions in any format.
- Easily create full screens of instructions with
formatted text.
- Present full colour graphics that can be as
large as full screen in any resolution from 640x480 to 1600x1200 and
beyond.
- Present multiple images and/or text in
succession or simultaneously.
- Superimpose custom graphics you make (e.g.,
special rating scales) over any other image or text. Great for
pretesting and rating visual stimuli.
- Capture screens from Microsoft PowerPoint and
other presentation software and present them as stimulus or instruction
screens in your experiment.
- Precisely locate images and text with flexible
and easy to use alignment options.
- Create multiple style settings with choices of
fonts and display colors .
- Writes data to an easy-to-analyze ASCII file.
- Add optional variables to the data file that
identify within subject trial conditions-makes for much easier analysis.
- Writes all data into a single file that can be
imported straight into Excel or SPSS.
- Includes a utility to easily merge data files
collected on different computers.
- Produces two data files per run-one that is
simplified and easy to use for most purposes and a more detailed ‘log’
version that records everything including actual stimulus presentation
times so you can ensure that your system is capable of achieving the
timing you need.
- Easily modify and re-use your input files
experiments.
- You don’t have to learn a new editor! Do
everything from your favourite spreadsheet application (e.g., Excel,
Lotus, Quattro). If you know how to use one of these, then you already
know how to edit DirectRT input files.
- Also works great in combination with MediaLab. Just drop a DirectRT session into any
MediaLab questionnaire. MediaLab will ask DirectRT to execute the
session and will pass along the current subject and condition IDs. When
DirectRT is finished, MediaLab will resume where it left off. This is a
great way to assign multiple DirectRT input files as a function of
between subject factors.
- Runs easily from a command line prompt so you
can call the session and execute it seamlessly from your within own
programs. You would never know you left your own program.
- Context sensitive help such that pressing F1 at
any time will help you with what you are currently doing.
- Easy-to-use intuitive interface--no programming
code necessary.
- Resolution independent: compatible with all screen displays supported by your hardware .
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It is strongly recommended that systems running
DirectRT have at least 256mb of memory, a graphics card with at least 16mb
of video memory and a processor speed of at least 500mhz. The log files
that DirectRT produces will show you whether or not any computer in
question can handle your experimental design.
Finally, it is also
necessary to have a spreadsheet application installed (e.g., Excel) if you
plan to edit or view the DirectRT input and output files on that
machine-or if you plan to try the DirectRT on-line tutorials. All input
and output files are created and saved in .CSV format which is editable
from any standard spreadsheet application.
More detail: Setup
and system requirements from user's guide
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Join our beta testing program for conducting experiments over the internet with version 2020!--ask us for details!
Site licenses for v2020 now allow users to work from home--ask us for details!
MediaLab and DirectRT v2020 are now available!
We can now authorize site license machines by using your domain names--ask us for details!
MediaLab v2016 is now available! MediaLab v2016
DirectRT v2016 is now available! DirectRT v2016
MediaLab v2014 is now available! Compatible with all versions of Windows. MediaLab v2014
DirectRT v2014 is now available! Compatible with all versions of Windows. DirectRT v2014
MediaLab v2012 is now available! Compatible with XP, Vista and Windows 7. MediaLab v2012
DirectRT v2012 is now available! Compatible with XP, Vista and Windows 7. DirectRT v2012
The latest public software reviews from SPSP and elsewhere.
Our full page software ad makes the back cover of JPSP, the Rolling Stone of Social Psychology.
Blair is very serious about software in our first brochure produced for the SPSP convention.
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