Java experiments for introductory cognitive psychology courses

Abstract

Interactive on-line experiments provide a unique and useful method for communicating material to students that is otherwise cumbersome and often confusing, The Java programming language is particularly suited for Internet-based programming applications of this sort because it bypasses many technical issues, including resource availability, security, and cross-platform compatibility, In most cases, topics appropriate to this medium of presentation should (l) not be easily demonstrated by other means, (2) represent an important finding in the field, and (3) be robust with respect to variations in both participants and equipment. The present paper outlines the integration of interactive experiments into an introductory cognitive psychology classroom, describing several experiments currently available on the World-Wide Web (WWW), Evaluation of the technical aspects of the technology as well as expansion of the format to other courses is discussed, For undergraduate science students, some of the most important classes involve getting hands-on experience with the methods and materials of their discipline. Thus, chemistry classes include laboratory sections where students explore the chemical properties of substances, introductory physics classes include laboratory sections where students experimentally validate the fundamental laws of motion, and biology classes include laboratory sections where students explore animal and human physiology. The laboratory sections of these classes are so important that it is difficult to imagine learning these disciplines without them.In contrast, psychology courses rarely involve hands-on experience. The few exceptions tend to be for psychobiology courses and courses that emphasize research methods. Of course, some topics in psychology do not easily lend themselves to a laboratory section, but many do. Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes (perception, memory, language, problem solving, decision making, etc.), and as a field it has gathered a number of key studies that demonstrate significant aspects of cognition in a laboratory setting.An accompanying laboratory experience in cognitive psychology allows students to better appreciate the relationship between, and need for careful control of, variables. Furthermore, given that the majority of experiments in this field are carried out on computers, a computer-based laboratory provides not only an efficient method of presenting laboratory exercises but also experience inter-

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Presentation accuracy of Web animation methods

“…Any changes introduced in the stimulus over time to produce animation require unique approaches implemented at the level of the software presenting the stimulus. As was mentioned, researchers have used Java (Francis et al, 2000;Hecht et al, 1999;Stevenson et al, 1999), Javascript/JScript (Horswill & Coster, 2001), and Authorware (McGraw et al, 2000a(McGraw et al, , 2000b programs for visual stimulus delivery. Another popular candidate method is dynamic hypertext markup language (DHTML), which involves browser-implemented rendering methods that are activated and controlled by Javascript/Jscript programs.…”

“…and associated network-based display presentation methods increase, the opportunity for psychologiststo carry out precisely timed, graphics-intensive experiments on the World-Wide Web becomes more attractive. Reports of experiments using the Java programming language (Francis, Neath, & Surprenant, 2000;Hecht, Oesker, Kaiser, Civelek, & Stecker, 1999;Stevenson, Francis, & Kim, 1999), client-side Javascript programs (Baron & Siepman, 2000;Horswill & Coster, 2001), Macromedia Authorware programs (McGraw, Tew, & Williams, 2000a, 2000bWilliams, McGraw, & Tew, 1999), and server-based experiment delivery (Krantz, Ballard, & Scher, 1997) have made graphical experiments on the World-Wide Web a reality.…”