An adaptive staircase procedure for the E-Prime programming environment.
Many studies need to determine a subject's threshold for a given task. This can be achieved efficiently using an adaptive staircase procedure. While the logic and algorithms for staircases have been well established, the few pre-programmed routines currently available to researchers require at least moderate programming experience to integrate into new paradigms and experimental settings. Here, we describe a freely distributed routine developed for the E-Prime programming environment that can be easily integrated into any experimental protocol with only a basic understanding of E-Prime. An example experiment (visual temporal-order-judgment task) where subjects report the order of occurrence of two circles illustrates the behavior and consistency of the routine.
Human Research and Engineering Directorate, US Army Research Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005, USA. dhair@wfubmc.edu
W David
WD
Hairston
Joseph A
JA
Maldjian
D000465:Algorithms; D001699:Biometry; D006801:Humans; D012984:Software; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis