Godot: A real-time data acquisition and control program for the PET microcomputer

Abstract

This article discusses a program for the PET microcomputer that is used to record the amount of time a human infant spends attending to one of two stimuli presented via 35-mm slides and a slide projector. The program records the number of attention episodes for either stimulus, the duration of slide presentation. and the number of slides presented. Also controlled are the transfer of data onto cassette tape at the end of the session, the detection of buttonpresses from an external keyboard, and the changing of stimuli. The interfacing used in the system and specialized subroutines are also described.

A Commodore 64-based experimental psychology laboratory

“…Numerous articles have described the research capabilities of the Apple II, TRS-80, and PET computers (e.g., Czerny, 1979;Dlhopolsky, 1984;Durrett, 1978;Gordon, Foree, & Eckerman, 1983;Osaka, 1979;Perera, 1981;Perone, 1985;Poltrock& Foltz, 1982;Thompson, 1979). The purpose of this article is to describe some of the capabilities of a relatively inexpensive microcomputer, the Commodore 64 (C64), and outline its use in an experimental psychology research laboratory.…”

Computerization of the operant arena

“…A PET Commodore 2001 series microprocessor controls the experiment while an observer records, on the minute, the number of rats observed at each of the eight stations. (For additional experimental control applications by the PET, see Crossman, Williams, & Chambers, 1978;Czerny, 1979;McLean, 1978. ) This paper describes the computer programs for the schedule functions controlled by the PET and the analysis of the rat dispersion patterns, controlled by the VAX.…”