About workshop:

Hi, in this workshop, we are going to create an experiment from scratch, test it on ourselves, and try to analyze our data. Psychophysics is a branch of psychology that tries to investigate the relation between physical stimuli and psychological responses. In order to do that, we need to create an experiment that will be able to control the stimuli and record the responses, response times and other cognitive behavioral variables.

We will be using PsychoPy, which is a free and open-source software for creating experiments in cognitive science. It is written in Python and uses the library of PyGame. PsychoPy in relative to Matlab Psychtoolbox, is more user-friendly and easy to use. It also has a graphical user interface (GUI), which is called PsychoPy Builder. PsychoPy Builder is a graphical user interface that allows you to create experiments without writing a single line of code. However, it is not as flexible as writing your own code. So, we will be mainly using PsychoPy Coder, to include our Python codes in to the experiment.

The experiment we are going to create is based on the previous study by Jovanovich and Mamassian (2020) which showed that distractor events that are unrelated to target events can affect the perceived time of target events. Following up on this; another study of Omer Yildiran & Pascal Mamassian, 2023 tried to investigate effect of expectation on timing of events by creating priming using frequency of target/distractor events proportion. In this experiment, we will still be investigating the effect of expectation on perceived time, however, in this workshop, we will use only single stimuli. We will try to create priming on the specific timing of the target by having a more frequent appearance of stimuli on a range of specific timing. Also, we will have unexpected conditions in which the timing of stimuli will be in a slightly different range.

Aim:

Our aim is to achive creating an experiment similar to the following video. Of course, it looks very simple and easy, but there is a lot going on behind the screens.

PsychoPy 2023-06-12 16-53-42.mp4

Untitled

Time and Place:

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You choose it, but please select all available times. As we all will have classes I didnt open slots within weeks next week.

• It will approximately take 2 days / 5 hour sessions (Can be longer or shorter)
• It is long because, although I have all the code, I will not just show you print(”hello world”) and ask you to copy-paste all other functions. I will try to stick to doing all stuff there like a naive coder
• Link: When could you attend to the workshop? - Online Poll - StrawPoll.com.

https://strawpoll.com/embed/GeZAOazPjnV

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Requirements:

• [ ] Basic knowledge of Python or any other programming language
• [ ] Installing PsychoPy (Its essential to install it before as there might be some problems with installing it during the workshop)
• [ ] Coffee 😃

For installing PsychoPy:

• Install Python (3.8 is recommended) or higher (https://www.python.org/downloads/)
• Install PsychoPy (https://www.psychopy.org/download.html)
• For analysis parts we also need some python packages such as:
  • Numpy, matplotlib, scipy, pandas…
  • Easyway: Installing Anaconda as it includes most of the analysis packages Free Download | Anaconda Or using Google Colab

Related Article:

0 Jovanovic_2020_Psychonomic_Bulletin_&_Review.pdf

Psychopy Checklist and short intro:

PsychoPy Workshop