A Web-accessible tutorial for PsyScope based on classic experiments in human cognition.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Educational Technology

Background:

• PsyScope is a freely available, graphical, and script-based software for controlling psychological experiments on Macintosh computers.
• Developed by Carnegie Mellon University, it is widely used in the psychology community.
• New users, including students and instructors, require accessible learning materials to effectively utilize PsyScope for research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a graduated tutorial designed for new users of PsyScope.
• To provide pedagogical aids and classroom demonstrations for teaching PsyScope.
• To facilitate the use of PsyScope in student research projects.

Main Methods:

• Development of a comprehensive, graduated tutorial for PsyScope.
• Creation of accompanying text and scripts for the tutorial.
• Hosting of tutorial materials on a dedicated website for easy access.

Main Results:

• The tutorial is available online from Hamilton College's website.
• It includes four practical examples: Stroop test, simple and choice reaction time, and sentence-verification task.
• These examples serve as effective tools for learning and demonstrating PsyScope functionalities.

Conclusions:

• The developed tutorial effectively supports new users in learning PsyScope.
• The provided resources enhance the pedagogical application of PsyScope in psychology education.
• PsyScope, supported by this tutorial, empowers students and researchers to conduct their own experiments.