Do you have tasks in which you measure RTs that average less than 1000ms? Do you have tasks in which stimulus onset and presentation times are seriously expressed in milliseconds and not seconds? Are you comfortable with the "blocks of trials" concept? If so, then you've come to the right place--DirectRT can dramatically simplify your life.
Powerful and easy to use
With DirectRT you can quickly and easily create reaction time tasks that require precision timing. You will be able to easily obtain accurate high speed response input from keyboards, mice, joysticks, microphones and external hardware. Present sound, video, images and text with exacting precision. You will be amazed at how DirectRT can make this so easy.
Windows can accomodate precision
Windows has traditionally been a very chaotic environment for precisely controlling the timing of events. The development of Microsoft’s DirectX has changed all this for psychological research. DirectX based programs can now manipulate images and sound and monitor input activity at the millisecond level. All this with incredible reliability. Dust off your old oscilloscope and see for yourself! DirectRT is 100% DirectX.
You’ll never go back
DirectRT comes with extensive on-line help files, an easy-to-follow 100-page manual and an on-line tutorial with over 40 samples that illustrate simple and advanced techniques. Using Microsoft Excel as its editor, you can create, copy, paste and modify trials in no time. Although we now offer millisecond accurate keyboards and button boxes, DirectRT also works great with most third party external hardware. Even with a standard USB keyboard, serial mouse, joystick, or sound card microphone, error is remarkably low. Bottom line is that DirectRT will help minimize timing error associated with most hardware.
General Features and Response Times
- • Timing resolution of 1 millisecond.
- • Response timing is synchronized with the screen display so timing always begins when the screen first begins to draw (eliminates 10-17 milliseconds of random error).
- • Works with Windows to pause all other system events while timing is taking place. With everything else put on hold, the highest processing priority possible is given to DirectRT during the critical time intervals on each trial.
- • Uses Microsoft’s DirectX to gain the fastest access possible to input events from the keyboard, mouse, joystick and soundcard.
- • Optionally define minimum and maximum response times and deliver custom message screens for each when violated.
- • Collect multiple response times on a single trial.
- • Collect key release response times in addition to key press times.
- • Define valid keys for any response.
- • Define 'correct' key for any response.
- • Optionally require a correct response (see the IAT sample).
- • Keyboard, mouse, and joystick input for single keypress or button responses.
- • Short open ended (fill-in-the-blank) responses.
- • Voice responses via microphone connected to your soundcard (ask us about a test you can do to see if your sound card can handle it).
- Option of saving voice responses as wav files on your hard drive.
- • Continuous joystick motion.
- • TTL signals can be read from a defined port to gather data from external equipment.
