Dead parrot psychophysics experiments ported from psychophysics and video toolboxes to Python
*"No, no, he's not dead, he's, he's restin'!"
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This repository aims to house psychophysics experiments and demos from MATLAB and the Psychophysics and Video toolboxes (Brainard, 1997; Pelli, 1997; Kleiner et al., 2008) to Python using Psychopy. This repository owes its existence to a problem I first encountered when I began programming psychophysics experiments in the late 1990s. Then the papers I read used technology different from what was available to me. I believe that the longevity of Python and PsychoPy will go beyond that of the Psychtoolbox. Porting experiments is now much easier with the support of LLM coding tools, which handle much of the grunt work, leaving intellectually stimulating tasks such as debugging and rewriting.
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Each experiment or demo in this repository is not guaranteed to be complete or correct, but merely a minimal runnable example of "dead parrots" for Python/Psychopy (read: experiments and demos). These dead parrots could be helpful for those who wish to replicate experiments, extend demos, or learn Psychopy if you're already familiar with MATLAB/PTB3. Of course, errors in the parrots could creep in from the original code, the LLM translation, or elsewhere. That said, I have ensured that they run and produce sensible output on both Windows 11 and Linux. Service and support for each Parrot will be poor and/or frustrating, but that's to be expected from a pet store that sells dead parrots.
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Please feel free to contribute or suggest experiments, especially pre-PTB3 experiments, that you believe would be useful.
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"I wanted to be a lumberjack."
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This project will never be entirely complete or correct, merely a signpost that one may return to if the casual reader wishes to know what it felt and looked like to train as a psychophysicist at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st centuries.
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If your work is in this repository without attribution, don't hesitate to get in touch with me, and I will make sure the code has the appropriate disclaimer.