Statistics modules in psychology
typically teach about experimental designs, but not how to create them. For those interested in research, then, it is
important to learn software for creating and designing experiments. This post
will cover four software that may be useful for research purposes: three for
creating and administering experimental designs, and one for analysing
qualitative data.
Inquisit
Inquisit is a tool for designing
and administering psychological tests and experiments. It has a Lab and Web version, which you can administer via local computers or
remotely over the web respectively.
Even though Inquisit is a paid
software, they have a 30-day free trial for you to test out their software. In
addition, they have a test library that allows you to download many cognitive
and neuropsychological paradigms to use for free (even with the free trial).
However, if you’d like to make adjustments to the preset paradigms, you would
need to learn how to edit the script.
Using Inquisit Web on a
smartphone
Another advantage is that you can
interoperate cognitive tasks from Inquisit Web with other survey sites such as
Qualtrics, Mechanical Turk, and more--allowing for smooth transition between
the survey and cognitive tasks. Visit their website to find out more: https://www.millisecond.com/
PsychoPy
PsychoPy is an open source
(free!) software for creating and running neuroscience, psychology, and
psychophysics experiments. It is written in the Python programming language
(hence, the name PsychoPy).
It has a Builder interface that allows you to build experiments without
programming experience, and a Coder
interface which you can use to create more complex designs by editing the
scripts. (As they emphasize on their website, “the best of both worlds!”)
Builder interface for
PsychoPy
Coder interface for
PsychoPy
See their website for more
details: http://www.psychopy.org/
E-Prime
E-Prime is a software for
behavioural research that allows users to create experimental designs and
collect the data obtained from these experiments.
One of the major advantages of
E-Prime is that it does not require programming knowledge to create
experimental designs (although you can edit the script). It also has a simple
user interface where users can drag and drop objects to create their experiments.
However, E-Prime is a paid
software so some may prefer to opt for free software like PsychoPy (which has quite similar capabilities but for free). To
find out more about E-Prime: https://pstnet.com/products/e-prime/
NVivo
NVivo is a software for
qualitative and mixed methods research. It can be used to organise and analyse
unstructured text, audio, and image data--from interviews, focus groups,
surveys, social media, journal articles, or more.
For those interested in thematic
analysis, NVivo can help to identify the key words and its frequencies in your
text, as well as the connections between the underlying themes and patterns in
this text. Thus, NVivo is a useful software to try out if you are interested in
qualitative analysis.
Learn more about NVivo here: https://www.qsrinternational.com/nvivo/home
Conclusion
Among these softwares, Inquisit
is a useful tool if you are looking to incorporate cognitive tasks with surveys
via Inquisit Web. Furthermore, it has a database for many different types of
paradigms, which would be useful and require less effort if you do not plan to
edit the original paradigm. On the other hand, E-Prime is relatively easier to
use if you plan to create an experimental paradigm from scratch. However,
compared to both softwares, PsychoPy is free. The Builder interface for PsychoPy is also somewhat similar to E-Prime.
Lastly, NVivo would be useful for qualitative research.
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