eXpTools: a C++ class library for animation, tachistoscopic presentation, and response timing.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Computer Science
• Experimental Design

Background:

• Developing psychological experiments requires specialized software for precise stimulus presentation.
• Existing tools may lack advanced animation and high-resolution graphics capabilities.
• Visual response time experiments demand accurate timing and data collection.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce the eXpTools Library for psychological experiment development.
• Detail its capabilities in combining animation with tachistoscopic presentation.
• Highlight its specialized functions for visual response time experiments.

Main Methods:

• Utilizes C++ classes and assembly language functions for specialized experiment development.
• Employs bit-plane animation techniques and a novel high-resolution graphics mode.
• Supports standard 16-color VGA modes with extended capabilities.

Main Results:

• Enables complex animation and tachistoscopic presentations with hundreds or thousands of frames.
• Integrates features like page flipping, screen blanking, and video-refresh synchronization.
• Provides interrupt-driven millisecond timing and keyboard response collection.

Conclusions:

• The eXpTools Library provides a powerful, versatile tool for creating sophisticated psychological experiments.
• Its advanced graphics and timing features enhance the accuracy and complexity of visual response time studies.
• The library's techniques offer significant improvements over standard VGA capabilities for experimental research.