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What's New in DirectRT v2006?

Thinking about upgrading to DirectRT 2006? Here are the newest features to help you decide. For all the current features, see our main DirectRT page. If you are ready to order or upgrade, please visit our order page.

New Features

DirectRT v2006 is backwards compatible such that DirectRT experiments from all previous versions should continue run without requiring any modification. Here are some of the latest features:

Enhanced Display Stability
Version 2006 virtually eliminates any cases of screen flicker or display artifacts (screen junk) during sessions.

Automatic Detection of Available Monitor Resolutions
When DirectRT started out there weren't so many monitors resolutions and so we simply offered a fixed list. Now DirectRT asks your system about what it can handle and will allow you to run sessions using any resolution your monitor is comfortable with.

Better Sound Capture Quality
We've increased the sampling rate of voice recordings from 11,000hz to 22,000hz making for better sounding files while keeping overall file size reasonable.

Enhanced Input From External Equipment
DirectRT can now read continuous data input from an external device and write these data to a file with current time and variable stamps as well as subject and condition IDs.

Record Mouse Clicks
DirectRT is now capable of receiving mouse cursor input using "click area" codes that function just like keycodes. Assign codes to regions of the screen. When the mouse clicks on any given region, it will trigger the keycode assigned to it. Works with most standard mice. Also works with light guns and touchscreens.

"No-Response" Available Via the New "-1" Response Code
You can now list -1 as a valid key code when not responding is a valid response option. DirectRT will act as if a "no-response" key is pressed at the moment the maximum time allowed for the response has been met. The -1 code will act just like any other keycode in terms of indicating it as a correct response, setting up response contingencies and such. Especially handy for tests like the GNAT.

Random Pairings Made Easy
In the past it was difficult to randomly choose a stimulus from a list and then subsequently present a paired or matched stimulus from different list. DirectRT now makes this easy by allowing you to say "pick the item from this list that matches the position of the item I just randomly chose from that list!" Say for example, you want to use a randomly chosen prime/target pairing, where primes and targets are each in their own lists. Choose a random prime as usual by requesting $prime. Then simply ask for &target^-1. Using the & symbol you are requesting a specific item from a list. The -1 value tells DirectRT to use the position equal to the position of the last random stimulus chosen! Use greater negative values to match random picks from farther back.

End Trials Early Using the New "!!" Symbol
When using a min-max value such as "0-1000!" you are telling DirectRT to stop waiting for an RT when 1000ms has past. However there has never been a way distinguish whether DirectRT should continue with the remaining elements of the current trial or break off and go directly to the next trial. Now you have the option of being extremely emphatic by specifying "0-1000!!"--the "!!" will tell DirectRT to exit the trial as a whole immediately.

Monitor Joystick Activity DURING an RT
In earlier versions, you could monitor the motion of a joystick for a specified period of time (e.g., RT:JOY2000) and you could measure a discrete response time with a joystick (RT:JOY), but you couldn't do both--at least not at the same time. Now you can. Simply indicate the number of milliseconds you want to monitor as a negative value such as RT:JOY-2000. This will tell DirectRT that you are taking a discrete RT but that you want it to also record any motion activity for up 2000ms.

Open Ended Response Contingencies
A new feature of the 2006 version is that you can add skipping and jumping to trials based on open-ended response contingencies. It works just like it does for closed-ended responses. That means you can define correct and incorrect text responses and set up skips and jumps as if they were key codes. There are a couple nice math test samples to illustrate.

Meta Commands--Tracks Events Between Trials
Version 2006 introduces the Meta Command. These are commands you can use that span multiple trials. Simply create a !Meta column in your input file and place any meta commands you like there. For example, say you want the session to end 5 minutes after the first trial begins. Simply enter "end:300000" in the Meta column for the first trial. Or you might want the session to skip to a particular block after a fixed time expires--you would enter">300:60000" to tell DirectRT to skip to trial 300 after 60 seconds has elapsed from this point. We'll be adding new meta commands as we think of them Feel free to request!

Multiple RTs with a Single RT Command
In some cases, you may want to accept two responses during a single RT window. Now you can define multiple sets of valid keys--one to represent each keypress that is allowed during a single RT interval.

InputRT Mouse and Keyboard Recorder, v2006 beta
We have developed a companion program to DirectRT called InputRT which can record every keypress and mouseclick with millisecond accuracy--while you are running other programs! This module can run in the background while you are running virtually any other activity--it will unobtrusively record the beginning and end of every keystroke and every mouseclick and save the data to a spreadsheet data file for later review. InputRT v2006 is a free add on by request for all DirectRT v2006 users.

Other general tweaks and fixes.

Compatible with experiments designed in all previous versions of DirectRT.

Free access to all fixes, samples, updates and basic support until the 2008 version

Interested? Drop our sales team a note!

Links

News

April 28th, 2020
Site licenses for v2020 now allow users to work from home--ask us for details!

April 21st, 2020
MediaLab and DirectRT v2020 are now available!

January 30th, 2020
We can now authorize site license machines by using your domain names--ask us for details!

April 21st, 2016
MediaLab v2016 is now available! Compatible with all versions of Windows. MediaLab v2016

April 21st, 2016
DirectRT v2016 is now available! Compatible with all versions of Windows. DirectRT v2016

February 21st, 2014
Official release of our brand new Rotary Controller. Gather continuous dial and dichotomous button input in one simple unit! Read more

March 16th, 2012
MediaLab v2012.4 is now available! Compatible with XP, Vista and Windows 7. MediaLab v2012

March 16th, 2012
DirectRT v2012.4 is now available! Compatible with XP, Vista and Windows 7. DirectRT v2012

January 1st, 2012
Release of the updated DirectIN v2012 button boxes. Same super-fast circuitry but now with remote firmware updates over the internet and full Windows 7 compatibility.Read more

March 16th, 2012
View and search the 2012 interactive user guides online: MediaLab and DirectRT

January 1th, 2012
The latest public software reviews from SPSP and elsewhere.

News Archive

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Last modified: April 21st, 2016.