What is the Black Box Toolkit and why should I use it?
Researchers within the behavioral sciences regularly make use of computer-based paradigms. Most assume that the computer accurately presents stimulus materials and records responses as programmed. However research has shown this expectation is often misplaced. Presentation, synchronization and response timing errors can be caused by many factors. Whether you make use of a commercial experiment generator or write custom software, you are likely to succumb to such errors. Inconsistent timing can lead to spurious conditional effects, poor replicability and bad science. The Toolkit has been developed to help researchers address timing issues related to their own paradigms running without modification on their own hardware. The toolkit operates as a virtual human programmed to respond to stimulus presentations and generate appropriate responses very accurately. Typically sensors are hooked up to a second PC or Mac to detect stimulus presentations. A generation interface is used to feed a re
