[DMDX] RE: Re: Using DMDX with a button box. I am using a Tecra S1 to collect RT's running DMDX and WIN XP. It is a good notebook in the sense that it has a serial port which many 'commercial' button boxes (e.g E-PRIME, SUPERLAB etc) use. If you can cope with RT's that may not be millisecond but will be accurate to around 5-10ms with a relatively fixed (important of course) margin of 'transmission delay' (approx 30-40ms) error built in then a serial mouse makes a pretty good compromise and is argued by many to be more accurate than PS/2 or USB mice. Of course you need to find one as they are less common nowadays but I found 1-2 around our lab including one with 3 keys and there is always Ebay !

There are various papers published on this topic in Behaviour Research Methods Instruments and Computers, e.g. Beringer (1992), 24, 486-490 and more recently Plant, Hammond and Whitehouse Behav Res Methods Instrum Comput. 2003 May;35(2):276-84.

Hope that helps,

Darren




-----Original Message-----
From: j.c.f. [mailto:jforster@psy1.psych.arizona.edu]
Sent: 25 October 2004 16:22
To: DMDX@psy1.psych.arizona.edu
Subject: [DMDX] Re: Using DMDX with a button box.


At 04:29 PM 10/25/2004 +1000, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I am wondering if anyone can pls help me. I need to connect a response
>button box (a 2-button and a 4-button) to a Toshiba Tecra S1 notebook which
>is running XP. I need to know if and how to connect a button box to this
>notebook, and, if a response button box isn't the best input device for
>this type of notebook , then what is? As i am not very technical at all, i
>am willing to provide any further info which may be required for someone to
>help me.

   You buy a PCMCIA PIO adapter and plug your button box into that.  But 
each button box is fabricated to work with some specific type of PIO card 
and the chances of someone non-technical getting that to work are roughly 
zero.  Unless you are super attached to millisecond accurate RTs I suggest 
getting some USB device that you like, be it a gamepad or a mouse or 
something else, and using that instead.  If you really have to have RTs 
with errors less than the 5-10ms or so that prevalent USB devices tend to 
have then you'll have to get a technician to set it up for you.  If you 
have money I can build or modify any existing button boxes for you but 
that's discussed off list.
                                                /"\\
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                                    - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


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