The lab group I just joined uses Eprime 1.2 and Eprime 2.0. I'd like to code up variants of the Monetary Incentive Delay Task and a stop task (Logan), and I have to think someone has done this already. To be able to work from an existing working paradigm would really speed things up. The Psychology Tools people claimed in a talk that there were all sorts of templates available on their site (that I could at least use as building block if coding it all up de novo), but I can't seem to find it.
Also, does anyone know whether you really HAVE to buy their EEfMRI add-on (or another company's add-on) to synchronize your e-prime experiment with fMRI scanner pulses?
Regarding the E-Prime scripts, Brian McWhinney directs STEP (System for Teaching Experimental Psychology) at Carnegie Mellon
http://step.psy.cmu.edu/
This might seem at first glance like an unhelpful answer, but in the long run, it may actually turn out to be very helpful indeed... ;o)
So, the answer is: don't use E-prime! I used it for a little while, and found it a real hassle. Un-user-friendly, and the licensing is a massive pain. For the record, you probably don't need their extra add-ons for fMRI, but it depends somewhat on how your scanner sync-pulse is set up.
My strong recommendation would be to program your experiment in PsychoPy: http://www.psychopy.org/ I've used a lot of experimental software (E-prime, Inquisit, Psychophysics toolbox) and for me it's the best system out there, at any cost - plus, it's totally free and open-source. You can run it on anything (Mac, PC, Linux) and if you're reasonably tech-y, you'll probably be able to get up and running with it in a couple of hours, without necessarily having to know any Python coding. Honestly, it's amazing.
I wrote a little introduction to it a while ago: http://computingforpsychologists.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/programming-experiments-using-psychopy-first-impressions/
If your lab is already well set-up for using E-prime though, of course it may be easier to just go with what's being used already. In which case ignore this!
Apologies if I come across as a crazy-eyed zealot. I'm not affiliated with PsychoPy in any way - I just love it. I struggled for years with various systems and PsychoPy was like a revelation in comparison - I'd never go back to using anything else now!
I second that PsychoPy is great - though i have to admit that the program is written by a colleague here so I might be a little biased. I've used it with EEG and there is documentation on how it can be used in fMRI experiments too. I have never learned Python, but have been able to build basic experiments using the GUI (which is far more intuitive than E-prime) and then when I need to add in parts or adjust parts that aren't standard I've been able to switch to the code version to adjust those bits. There is a really useful PsychoPy Google group where you receive quick answers from other users to questions if you have specific problems that need troubleshooting.
Undergraduate teaching here has now also switched over from E-prime to PsychoPy because it more user-friendly and free!
Earlier before I posted this query, I looked at PsychoPy based on another question thread on ResearchGate, and found its on-line documentation a bit meager, which spooked me since I'm not a programmer, and would rely heavily on GUI-based approaches, where templates in e-prime akin to my task needs can get me started, and a coding colleague could handle idiosyncratic touch-ups. As noted, this is what the lab here uses, people here are familiar with it, and it seems to be the fastest way to get started for now. So, I welcome sources of .es and .es2 files and supporting image files for the moment.
I'm all for open-source software approaches, and would be open-minded over the long term.
Hi James, hi all,
James, if you google for E-prime scripts and take a couple of hours to review what you get you'll have a fair amount of diverse experiments already coded that can help you get started. I would also recommend that you start by reading a good book, and I think the one named "The E-Primer : An introduction to creating psychological experiments in E-Prime" by a bunch of people from the Leiden University is not bad.
On the interfacing of E-Prime in order to get time stamps, it used to be easy to achieve under E-Prime 1. I guess it hasn't changed much in the version 2.0. Any instrument to be interfaced has either a serial or a parallel port, and it is not that difficult to interface that to E-Prime. Without having to buy any add-on. As far as I know there are 2 way of achieving that interfacing. One of them is a dll file that achieves this but it works only with Win XP. The other requires some re-soldering of wires. If you don't want to bother with these solutions and you have the credits to buy that add-on, do so, but if you're out of money you may want to give these other options a try. Let me know if you need to go down the latter path, I'll try help you. But if your instrument has only an USB output, I cannot help.
Hth,
cheers,
SCM
Thank you Serban, and not annoyed at all Matthew. In fact, I floated a trial balloon, and folks here are more receptive about new platforms than I suspected. If I can't find an e-prime template close enough to the tasks I'm envisioning such that I'd have to scramble up an entire learning curve for e-prime, a case could be made to move to the open source platform instead if it's truly that easy to get rolling with GUI-based initial configuration. I'm still concerned that there may not be enough documentation and support. THere's no free lunch in life it seems.
Does anyone know of a freely available repository of PsychoPy code for experiments? In particular fMRI based experiments. Other than the demos that come with it.
Thank you.
Not that I know of, but this forum might be helpful: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/psychopy-users/Q8Bdb8Sad0M/op0Tn1bGCdcJ
I think you can also download other free demos aside from the ones that download automatically with the program if you look online, and there may be fMRI ones there.
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