PET programs for demonstration and student research in cognitive psychology

Abstract

The BASIC programs described here grew partly from a need to create a teaching package for cognitive psychology using the Commodore PET microcomputer. The programs were also designed to be used in an undergraduate laboratory course in human leaming and memory, in which students were required to conduct an experiment of their own designwithin a single semester. A number of existing commercial packages are available for other small computers (e.g., Fischler, 1980;Keenan & Keller, 1980). These are excellent for demonstrating a number of research methods in cognitive psychology, but are somewhat limited in their ability to be adapted to run experiments different from those originally demonstrated.The present package is useful for in-class demonstrations of several experiments widely cited in human memory and cognitive psychology textbooks. Each explains the phenomenon in question, collects data from the subject, and displays a summary of the subject's performance. The programs are written so that they can be adapted easily to student research projects that are similar, but not identical, to those demonstrated. The programs may be modified to generate a large number of experiments based on the four phenomena demonstrated in the original programs.Each of the demonstration programs begins with a brief description of the research on which the demonstration is based. Three of the programs display a graph showing a typical outcome of the research. The subject then is given instructions and led through a series of sample trials, which may be repeated as necessary. The student then serves as subject in the experiment. With one exception, he/she makes responses directly at the keyboard, and when data collection is complete, a summary of the subject's performance is displayed.Each of the programs contains REMARK statements indicating the beginning and ending lines of the major sections of the program (description of research, instructions, experiment, and data summary display). In this way, if a user wishes to adapt the program for research using naive subjects, those portions that should be eliminated or changed (such as the description of the research and its results) may be easily identified. In

IBM BASIC Tachistoscope Program for Classroom Demonstration

“…When computers became more readily available, simulations of tachistoscopes were published. Initially, these programs were designed for minicomputers and mainframes (Green & Schwartz, 1978;Prinzmetal & Banks, 1978;Simpson & Burgess, 1984). More recent tachistoscopic simulations have used microcomputers, such as the Apple (Cameron, Coffee, Hada, & Deni, 1985) and Atari (Ament, 1986).…”

“…More recent tachistoscopic simulations have used microcomputers, such as the Apple (Cameron, Coffee, Hada, & Deni, 1985) and Atari (Ament, 1986). Most microcomputer programs are specialized in that they demonstrate only one research protocol, such as Sperling's (1960) work (Cameron et al, 1985) or Peterson and Peterson's (1959) classic experiment (Simpson & Burgess, 1984).…”

An integrated approach to computer usage in the teaching of experimental psychology

“…There are several sources of CAE on the market or in the public domain for independent systems, such as the Apple U (Bewley, 1979;Poltrock & Foltz, 1982), the PET (Simpson & Burgess, 1984), and the TRS-80 (Bewley, 1979;Perera, 1981). With the exception of translating one BASIC version to another, there is little problem in upgrading these programs to take advantage of the network, so that at key points in the lab, data can be sent to the host disk drives and a progress report can be sent to the printer.…”

A computerized cognitive laboratory: A software package for the cognitive psychology laboratory class

“…These programs may be used either for an in-class demonstration of a particular concept or for a laboratory course that requires the student to collect and analyze data germane to the topic area being studied. There are similar packages available, such as the one described by Simpson and Burgess (1984); the present package, however, includes a broader range of demonstrations that can be used with most Commodore computers.In general, all of the programs replicate an experiment or a standard procedure that has been used to examine a specific cognitive process. Indeed, when appropriate, the procedures of a well-known published experiment have been reproduced.…”

“…These programs may be used either for an in-class demonstration of a particular concept or for a laboratory course that requires the student to collect and analyze data germane to the topic area being studied. There are similar packages available, such as the one described by Simpson and Burgess (1984); the present package, however, includes a broader range of demonstrations that can be used with most Commodore computers.…”