Using personal computers for experimental control

A microprocessor-based real-time BASIC laboratory: A pulse motor-controlled visual stimulator

“…Two minor difficulties have been found during cassette handling and processing. First, as has been previously noted by McLean (1978), the program/data loading procedure has not always been successful. Second, the zero-page RAM sometimes malfunctions.…”

“…black-and-white CRT with 73 key inputs) as a random pulse generator (Osaka, 1978), a fully automated versatile random stimulator was designed for visual psychophysical experiments. The PET has BASIC accessible 8-bit parallel I/O ports for laboratory interfacing: The TTLcompatible pins (PAO to PA7, CAl, and CB2) of the powerful MOS6522 PIA (VIA) remain free as the user port and are directly BASIC accessible using "PEEKing" and "POKEing" at each I/O register address (Commodore Business Machines, Inc., 1978, Note 1;Johnson, 1978;Yob,I979 Interfacing to the PET is through the MOS6522 PIA port that yields 8 bits information exchange, the direction of which can be set under BASIC control, decimal address 59459 in the PET's memory map (McLean, 1978). In Figure I, PAD, PAl, and PA2 ports of the PIA are each defined as input modes, whereas PA4, PAS, and PA6 ports are each defined as output modes.…”

“…, and responses into the RAM area for the cassette buffer until a block of data is ready to be written. Data are not double buffered, so that processing ceases while the block is written, and it is difficult to predict exactly when the recording action will occur (Mclean, 1978). tines 810-910 set the angle of the pulse motors to initial position.…”

Godot: A real-time data acquisition and control program for the PET microcomputer

“…recently reviewed the Commodore PET 2001 and the Radio Shack TRS-80 personal microcomputers as laboratory instruments; two recent articles (Crossman, Williams, & Chambers, 1978;Mclean, 1978) described the use of the PET in the control of real-time experiments. The present article discusses the use of the PET to control a simple perceptual task for a human infant in real-time.…”

Computerization of the operant arena

“…A PET Commodore 2001 series microprocessor controls the experiment while an observer records, on the minute, the number of rats observed at each of the eight stations. (For additional experimental control applications by the PET, see Crossman, Williams, & Chambers, 1978;Czerny, 1979;McLean, 1978. ) This paper describes the computer programs for the schedule functions controlled by the PET and the analysis of the rat dispersion patterns, controlled by the VAX.…”