Psychopy

Within this part of the winter school, we will explore how to create and run experiments using PsychoPy, a python library dedicated to conducting experiments in the realm of psychology and adjacent fields. Due to time constraints we will only spend a quick look at things and showcase the most important aspects to allow folks to explore things further after the course ends.

Topics 💡

In the following you’ll find the objectives and materials for each of the topics we’ll discuss during this session.

Introduction to PsychoPy - Setup & Basics

Most of us already conducted one or the other experiment. However, there’s a fair number of different software options and tools out there, which mostly depends on the computational infrastructure at hand but also on what people are used to. That being said: what options are roughly out there and can we actually use python based resources concerning experiments with a clear conscience? To get some idea we will explore the python library PsychoPy, including its setup, basic working principles, as well as advantages and disadvantages, showcased on a very simple experiment. Buckle up y’all, this is going to be quite a ride.

Objectives📍

• running experiments using python

  • Exploring PsychoPy

  • basic setup & interaction

  • experiments, trials, stimuli, responses

  • a very simple experiment

• Ask and answer questions

• Have a great time

Materials📓

Please have a look at the section Introduction to PsychoPy in the ToC on the left.

Introduction to PsychoPy - Presenting stimuli & trials

Materials📓

Please have a look at the section PsychoPy - stimuli & trials in the ToC on the left.

Introduction to PsychoPy - Collecting responses

Materials📓

Please have a look at the section PsychoPy - data output in the ToC on the left.

Introduction to PsychoPy - A simple experiment

Materials📓

Please have a look at the section PsychoPy - A simple experiment in the ToC on the left.

Introduction to PsychoPy - Advanced topics

Materials📓

Please have a look at the section PsychoPy - advanced in the ToC on the left.

optional/reading/further materials

PsychoPy resources

The PsychoPy website with all the information and tutorials/workshops.

The PsychoPy discourse forum many very helpful Q&As and for direct support.

Things to check out

Here are some cool videos providing some further insights into the world and capabilities of PsychoPy.

First, a nice tutorial on how to create a “line bisection task” using PsychoPy.

Want to know how far you can go with PsychoPy? How about coding an entire video game? Yeah, that’s possible!