Matlab For Psychologists

The matrix laboratory interactive computing environment—MATLAB—has brought creativity to research in diverse disciplines, particularly in designing and programming experiments. More commonly used in mathematics and the sciences, it also lends itself to a variety of applications across the field of psychology. For the novice looking to use it in experimental psychology research, though, becoming familiar with MATLAB can be a daunting task. MATLAB for Psychologists expertly guides readers through the component steps, skills, and operations of the software, with plentiful graphics and examples to match the reader’s comfort level. Using an extended illustration, this concise volume explains the program’s usefulness at any point in an experiment, without the limits imposed by other types of software. And the authors demonstrate the responsiveness of MATLAB to the individual’s research needs, whether the task is programming experiments, creating sensory stimuli, running simulations, or calculating statistics for data analysis. Key features of the coverage: Thinking in a matrix way. Handling and plotting data. Guidelines for improved programming, sound, and imaging. Statistical analysis and signal detection theory indexes. The Graphical User Interface. The Psychophysics Toolbox. MATLAB for Psychologists serves a wide audience of advanced undergraduate and graduate level psychology students, professors, and researchers as well as lab technicians involved in programming psychology experiments.

Human behavior is fascinating so it’s no surprise that psychologists and neuroscientists spend their lives designing rigorous experiments to understand it. MATLAB is one of the most widely used pieces of software for designing and running behavioral experiments, and it opens up a world of quick and flexible experiment programming. This book offers a step-by-step guide to using MATLAB with Psychtoolbox to create customisable experiments. Its pocket size and simple language allow you to get straight to the point and help you to learn fast in order to complete your work in great time. In nine simple steps, it guides you all the way from setting parameters for your experiment to analysing the output. Gone are the daunting days of working through hundreds of irrelevant and complicated documents, as in this handy book, Erman Misirlisoy coaxes you in the right direction with his friendly and encouraging tricks and tips. If you want to learn how to develop your own experiments to collect and analyse behavioral data, then this book is a must-read. Whether you are a student in experimental psychology, a researcher in cognitive neuroscience, or simply someone who wants to run behavioral tasks on your friends for fun, this book will offer you the skills to succeed.

MATLAB for Neuroscientists serves as the only complete study manual and teaching resource for MATLAB, the globally accepted standard for scientific computing, in the neurosciences and psychology. This unique introduction can be used to learn the entire empirical and experimental process (including stimulus generation, experimental control, data collection, data analysis, modeling, and more), and the 2nd Edition continues to ensure that a wide variety of computational problems can be addressed in a single programming environment. This updated edition features additional material on the creation of visual stimuli, advanced psychophysics, analysis of LFP data, choice probabilities, synchrony, and advanced spectral analysis. Users at a variety of levels—advanced undergraduates, beginning graduate students, and researchers looking to modernize their skills—will learn to design and implement their own analytical tools, and gain the fluency required to meet the computational needs of neuroscience practitioners. The first complete volume on MATLAB focusing on neuroscience and psychology applications Problem-based approach with many examples from neuroscience and cognitive psychology using real data Illustrated in full color throughout Careful tutorial approach, by authors who are award-winning educators with strong teaching experience

The matrix laboratory interactive computing environment—MATLAB—has brought creativity to research in diverse disciplines, particularly in designing and programming experiments. More commonly used in mathematics and the sciences, it also lends itself to a variety of applications across the field of psychology. For the novice looking to use it in experimental psychology research, though, becoming familiar with MATLAB can be a daunting task. MATLAB for Psychologists expertly guides readers through the component steps, skills, and operations of the software, with plentiful graphics and examples to match the reader’s comfort level. Using an extended illustration, this concise volume explains the program’s usefulness at any point in an experiment, without the limits imposed by other types of software. And the authors demonstrate the responsiveness of MATLAB to the individual’s research needs, whether the task is programming experiments, creating sensory stimuli, running simulations, or calculating statistics for data analysis. Key features of the coverage: Thinking in a matrix way. Handling and plotting data. Guidelines for improved programming, sound, and imaging. Statistical analysis and signal detection theory indexes. The Graphical User Interface. The Psychophysics Toolbox. MATLAB for Psychologists serves a wide audience of advanced undergraduate and graduate level psychology students, professors, and researchers as well as lab technicians involved in programming psychology experiments.

A comprehensive guide to the conceptual, mathematical, and implementational aspects of analyzing electrical brain signals, including data from MEG, EEG, and LFP recordings. This book offers a comprehensive guide to the theory and practice of analyzing electrical brain signals. It explains the conceptual, mathematical, and implementational (via Matlab programming) aspects of time-, time-frequency- and synchronization-based analyses of magnetoencephalography (MEG), electroencephalography (EEG), and local field potential (LFP) recordings from humans and nonhuman animals. It is the only book on the topic that covers both the theoretical background and the implementation in language that can be understood by readers without extensive formal training in mathematics, including cognitive scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists. Readers who go through the book chapter by chapter and implement the examples in Matlab will develop an understanding of why and how analyses are performed, how to interpret results, what the methodological issues are, and how to perform single-subject-level and group-level analyses. Researchers who are familiar with using automated programs to perform advanced analyses will learn what happens when they click the “analyze now” button. The book provides sample data and downloadable Matlab code. Each of the 38 chapters covers one analysis topic, and these topics progress from simple to advanced. Most chapters conclude with exercises that further develop the material covered in the chapter. Many of the methods presented (including convolution, the Fourier transform, and Euler's formula) are fundamental and form the groundwork for other advanced data analysis methods. Readers who master the methods in the book will be well prepared to learn other approaches.

"Learning Statistics with R" covers the contents of an introductory statistics class, as typically taught to undergraduate psychology students, focusing on the use of the R statistical software and adopting a light, conversational style throughout. The book discusses how to get started in R, and gives an introduction to data manipulation and writing scripts. From a statistical perspective, the book discusses descriptive statistics and graphing first, followed by chapters on probability theory, sampling and estimation, and null hypothesis testing. After introducing the theory, the book covers the analysis of contingency tables, t-tests, ANOVAs and regression. Bayesian statistics are covered at the end of the book. For more information (and the opportunity to check the book out before you buy!) visit http://ua.edu.au/ccs/teaching/lsr or http://learningstatisticswithr.com

Programming is an important part of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience, and Python is an ideal language for novices. It sports a very readable syntax, intuitive variable management, and a very large body of functionality that ranges from simple arithmetic to complex computing. Python for Experimental Psychologists provides researchers without prior programming experience with the knowledge they need to independently script experiments and analyses in Python. The skills it offers include: how to display stimuli on a computer screen; how to get input from peripherals (e.g. keyboard, mouse) and specialised equipment (e.g. eye trackers); how to log data; and how to control timing. In addition, it shows readers the basic principles of data analysis applied to behavioural data, and the more advanced techniques required to analyse trace data (e.g. pupil size) and gaze data. Written informally and accessibly, the book deliberately focuses on the parts of Python that are relevant to experimental psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists. It is also supported by a companion website where you will find colour versions of the figures, along with example stimuli, datasets and scripts, and a portable Windows installation of Python.