Millisecond Online Community

Recent Additions to Inquisit Task Library

seandr — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:57:00 GMT

Millisecond Software has been hard at work crafting new tasks for our library. Recent additions include the following well-known cognitive and neuropsychological measures:

* N-Back Task - Jaeggie et al (2010)
* Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT) - Gronwall (1977)
* Digit Span - Lumiley & Calhoon (1934)
* Mackworth Clock Vigilance Test - Mackworth (1948)
* Baddeley's Grammatical Reasoning Test - Baddeley (1968)
* Test of Variables of Attention - Greenberg (1991)

We hope these scripts prove useful to your research.

Looking for a test that isn't in our library? Let us know, and we will put it on our "to do" list.

-Sean

Millisecond is hiring Inquisit script developers

seandr — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:42:00 GMT

UPDATE: We current have all the help we need, but please feel free to send you resume if you would like us to contact you when positions open up in the future.

Millisecond Software is seeking script developers to implement various cognitive and neuropsychological measures commonly used in psychological research literature. Your responsibilities will be to determine the detailed algorithms and procedures of a given measure as described in scientific journal articles and other sources and then program the measures using the Inquisit programming language and platform. Access to journal articles can be provided to those who do not otherwise have it.

The ideal person would have basic programming skills and a working knowledge of cognitive psychology and/or neuropsychology, or the desire and ability to learn either. Experience with the Inquisit programming platform is a huge plus, but not required.

This is a flexible contract position that allows you to work from home and set your own hours. We will consider those seeking full or part time work as well as those seeking short term projects to supplement income. This is an ideal position for students and recent graduates with an interest in both software and experimental psychology.

Pay is competitive and negotiable. We prefer to pay on a script by script basis, but are open to other arrangements.

If interested, send your resume to inquisit at millisecond dot com.

Millisecond Software receives fast-track SBIR award from NIDA

seandr — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 16:57:00 GMT

Millisecond Software is pleased to announce it has won a fast-track SBIR contract from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for the topic "Web Based Cognitive/Neuropsychological Testing for Substance Abuse".

Over the course of Phase I and II of the contract, Millisecond Software will develop a battery of online neuropsychological tests for the Inquisit platform, focusing on tests that have been shown to be sensitive to cognitive impairments resulting from drug and alcohol abuse, and that predict an individual's risk of substance abuse. As part of this contract, Millisecond Software will also port the Inquisit experimentation engine to non-Windows platforms, enhance its web-based tools to better support a broad variety of experimental designs, and add new features for managing and tracking respondents.

Millisecond Software at 2010 Psychonomic Society Meeting

seandr — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 02:12:00 GMT

Millisecond will once again return to the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society this week in St. Louis. Look for our booth in the exhibitor's area. Drop by for free chocolate, squishy brains, or just to say hello.

-Sean

Millisecond at SPSP 2010 conference

seandr — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:08:00 GMT

Millisecond will be at the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) conference in Las Vegas at the end of the month January. SPSP is always a fun conference, and Millisecond is always looking for an excuse to go to Vegas. Drop by our booth for free chocolate, squishy brains, and information on Inquisit.

-Sean

New task library additions

seandr — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:46:00 GMT

The Millisecond Task Library continues to grow with the recent addition of several new scripts that implement a variety of well known cognitive measures:

Hungry Donkey Task (Crone & van der Molen, 2004) - This is a version of the Iowa Gambling task designed for kids.

Self-Ordered Pointing Task (Petrides & Milner, 1982) - well-known neuropsychological measure of frontal lobe impairment.

Game of Dice Task (Brand et al., 2002) - a gambling task that measures propensity to risk.

Columbia Card Task (Figner et al., 2009) - a gambling task that measures risk-taking.

Information Sampling Task (Clark et al., 2006) - a measure of impulsivity.

Picture Story Exercise - (Schultheiss & Pang, 2008) - a measure of implicit motivation.

Special thanks to Oliver Schultheiss for providing the Picture Story Exercise script, and to David Nitz for developing all of the others.

We have many more tasks planned, so please check back. If there are any tasks you'd like us to add to the library, send an email to support at millisecond dot com.

-Sean

Millisecond at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society

seandr — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:34:00 GMT

In eight short days, we'll once again be heading to San Francisco for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting (CNS 2009).

The Millisecond exhibitor booth will be fully stocked with the ever popular squishy brains, chocolates, and, of course, loads of information about Inquisit.

It's always a pleasure to meet the faces behind the emails, so please stop by, even if only to hello.

-Sean

Inquisit 3.0.3.2 has been released

seandr — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:24:00 GMT

After a good long while in beta, Inquisit 3.0.3.2 has finally been released. There are lots of new features and bug fixes in here.

Full validation support for <openended> questions, including making a response mandatory and contraining responses by length, type of character, and even pattern such as phone numbers and email addresses.
Two new attributes, isvalidreseponse and iscorrectresponse, that allow responses in any type of trial to be categorized as valid and correct based on complex expressions.
Ability to specify the position of next and back buttons on survey pages.
Added ability to insert dynamic text into the response options for multiple choice questions in surveys.
Fixed a number of bugs presenting right-to-left languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.
Added numerous missing help topics.

And more. For a full list of features and fixes, see our release notes.

-Sean

Millisecond at Psychonomic Society Conference in Chicago

seandr — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:16:00 GMT

In about 5 hours, I'll be on a plane to Chicago for the Psychonomic Society's annual meeting, where Millisecond will set up an exhibitor booth. This was the first psychology conference I ever attended as a graduate student, so I always feel a little bit of that initial excitement when I go back.

If you are there, definitely stop by the booth to say hello, have some chocolate, get yourself a squishy brain toy, and hear the inside scoop on what's in store for Inquisit.

See you there.

-Sean

Inquisit 3.0.3.1 is now available

seandr — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:49:00 GMT

Millisecond is pleased to announce another update to Inquisit 3. This update contains both new feature and a bug fixes. Some of the highlights:

Inquisit Desktop now supports automatic registration for site license holders. A site licensed department need only register the blocks of IP Addresses assigned to their computers, and Inquisit will automatically register itself when run for the first time.
You can now specify the size for survey navigation buttons.
Survey option items have two new properties, selectedvalue and selectedcaption, that return the value and caption of the selected option.

For a complete list of features and fixes, see our release notes.

-Sean

Press Release: ASL Announces Integration With Millisecond’s Inquisit Software.

seandr — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:40:00 GMT

Press Contact: Mike Ryan

Tel. 781.275.4000

Email: asl@asleyetracking.com

ASL Announces Integration With Millisecond’s Inquisit Software.

“Researchers Can Now Customize Eye Tracking Experiment Metrics”

Bedford, Massachusetts, USA – Applied Science Laboratories (ASL) continues its industry leadership by finding ways to assist researchers actively engaged in collecting eye tracking data with new software solutions designed to make equipment operation easier and streamline data analysis.

Successful integration of ASL’s eye tracking technology with Inquisit Software offers researchers much more flexibility in planning, executing and displaying the results of studies across the entire range of eye tracking applications.

In making the announcement, Virginia Salem, Customer Relations at ASL said, “This new integration is just another example of ASL superb technical team working with other technology partners to provide a comprehensive solution for our customers. “

Sean Draine, Millisecond’s founder is pleased that his software has tremendous synergy with the ASL eye trackers saying, “Rich integration between Inquisit and ASL Eyetrackers makes it incredibly easy for Inquisit users to calibrate eye trackers, insert more event markers into the data stream, and program dynamic visual tasks that incorporate and react to eye position and pupil diameter.”

Applied Science Laboratories has been a pioneer in the examination of human eye movements and pupil dynamics for over 30 years. ASL was the first company to develop a head-mounted eye tracker, eye/head integration, parallax-free optics, and many other features that have become industry standard. For more information, visit www.asleyetracking.com or contact the company at 175 Middlesex Turnpike, Bedford, Massachusetts, 01730 USA, Tel. (781) 275-4000.

"Millisecond Software is a technology leader in high precision software for
psychological, behavioral neuroscience, and consumer research. Millisecond
was among the first companies to leverage Microsoft's DirectX technology to
enable high performance stimulus presentation and reaction time measurement
on the Windows platform. Millisecond is the only company to enable
administration of precision timed experiments over the world-wide web. For
more information, visit http://www.millisecond.com or contact the company at
1508 E Prospect Street, Seattle, WA, 98112, Tel. 1-888-976-7770."

Inquisit 3.0.3.0 is now available

seandr — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:04:00 GMT

Millisecond has released yet another update to Inquisit 3. This update has been cooking on the new beta burner for a couple of months now, which has allowed us to find and fix even more bugs reported by our user community.

The highlights of this release are:

Inquisit is now fully interoperable with ASL eye tracking systems. More on this later as we work on a press release with ASL.
We've release a new launch page allows participants to try alternative versions of the web control if the default does not work. This will allow you to reach even more participants using a broader range of computer configurations.
Participants running Firefox 3 no longer require administrative privileges to run the mozilla plugin version of Inquisit.
The new launch page has a slick new DHTML user interface for prompting subjects to enter an id number.
Full support for animated GIFs, which allows Inquisit to run Kip Williams' cyberball game for simulating social inclusion/exclusion.

As always, a complete list of features and bugs fixes can be found in our release notes.

Millisecond Software at SCN meeting

seandr — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:10:00 GMT

If you are planning to be at the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience meeting this weekend in San Francisco, stop by the Millisecond exhibitor booth with any questions or ideas you have about Inquisit, or just to say hello.

We'll have chocolate on hand for those needing a quick boost of energy. And of course, we'll have squishy brain toys to help relieve conference-induced stress. These are especially helpful to have while you give your presentation.

Inquisit 3.0.2.0 is now available for download

seandr — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 16:52:00 GMT

We've released yet another update to Inquisit 3 with some great new features and a bunch of bug fixes, almost all of which were prompted by feedback from our user community.

Perhaps the biggest new feature is the ability to launch Inquisit web scripts using Java Web Start. This provides a friendlier download experience for Firefox users who have the java runtime installed on their computer (those without java can still use the plugin). For now, the java option is off by default so as not to change the behavior of experiments in progress, but you can easily turn it on using the registration wizard.

Another cool new feature - Inquisit now allows participants to save their data file if for some reason Inquisit can not access the location specified in the script. This allows you to easily save your data if, for example, the paricipant's computer loses network connectivity, or your data file share computer is mistakenly rebooted in the the middle of data collection. Thanks to "Blackadder" for his impassioned plea and smart design ideas.

See the release notes for a more detailed list of features.

Inquisit 3.0.1.1 now available

seandr — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:02:00 GMT

This release contains numerous fixes for bugs that have reported in our forums and via email, along with a few minor features. If you're using Inquisit 3, you should pick up this update at your earliest convenience. See the release notes for some of the fixes that are in this release.

Millisecond Software at SPSP 2008

seandr — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 06:52:00 GMT

If you are heading to Albuquerque next week for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology meeting, then drop by the Millisecond Software booth, say hello, pick up a free Inquisit squishy brain, and take a look at Inquisit 3.

-Sean

Inquisit 3.0.1.0 now available

seandr — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 00:02:00 GMT

We've just released Inquisit 3.0.1.0 to the web. This is a free update with some great new features as well as some important bug fixes.

The highlight of this release is support for recording spoken responses and the ability to automatically transcribe the recorded responses using the speech recognition engine. It also has fixes for just about all of the bugs reported in the forums to date.

For the complete list of changes, see the release notes.

Wanted: Booth Worker for Society for Cognitive Neuroscience Meeting

seandr — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:45:00 GMT

Update: this position is now filled. Thanks to those of you who responded.

Interested in attending the Society for Cognitive Neuroscience conference this year but short on funds?

We're looking for a graduate student who is friendly, articulate, and knowledgeable about Inquisit to work in the Millisecond vendor both at the 2008 Society for Cognitive Neuroscience Meeting in San Francisco from April 12-16th. Responsibilities include answering questions, running demonstrations, and handing out free goodies to conference attendees who stop by the booth.

In exchange for working in our booth, we'll cover your flight and hotel expenses, and we'll give you a free Inquisit 3 Desktop license. We'll also work in some free time at the conference so you can attend talks and poster sessions.

If you are interested, send a resume/vita to seandr at millisecond dot com.

Discount upgrades for recently purchased version 2 licenses

seandr — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 17:13:00 GMT

If you have recently purchased Inquisit 2 licenses, we are offering a special discount that allows you to exchange those licenses for Inquisit 3 license for the difference in cost. Simply tell us how many version 3 licenses you wish to purchase, and we'll subtract the full cost of your version 2 licenses from the total.

This offer applies to any version 2 licenses purchased on or after June 1, 2007, and it remains in effect until March 1, 2008, after which all version 2 licenses can be upgraded at the normal rate.

To take advantage of this offer, send an email to sales at millisecond dot com stating which licenses you'd like to exchange. To determine whether your purchase meets the cutoff date, login to your account to view your entire purchase history.

Cheers,
Sean

Inquisit 3 Now Available!

seandr — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 21:28:00 GMT

Millisecond is proud to announce the release of Inquisit 3. This is a major new release that greatly expands the range of research Inquisit can do while remaining as easy to use as ever. Take advantage of our free trial and check it out for yourself.

Inquisit 3 Web Edition includes a number of new licensing options, including time-limited licenses that allow you save money by using Inquisit 3 Web Edition on a per-project basis.

You may have noticed that we've updated milllisecond.com with a new look and feel. We've also reorganized things a bit, added some new content, and made some improvements to the "My Account" area.

We hope you enjoy the new product and the new web site!

Inquisit is now Vista compatible

seandr — Wed, 02 May 2007 00:36:00 GMT

The tireless elves at Millisecond have been working overtime on a Vista-compatible update for Inquisit 2.0, and with today's release of version 2.0.61004.5, their hard work is complete.

As some of you already know, most of the compatibility issues were in the Inquisit installer program rather than the application itself. However, we did make some minor changes to the parallel port and graphics functionality.

Note - Inquisit relies on DirectDraw, which does not work on graphics cards that are not designed for Vista. Unless your computer shipped with Vista, or you recently updated the graphics card, your card is probably not Vista compatible. Consult your card manufacturer for a defnitive answer.

Another note - Past experience says that with each new version of Windows, there will initially be some bugs in the wave of new graphics drivers that follow. Once manufacturers have had a chance to update their new drivers, the bugs become increasingly rare. So keep an eye out, and let us know if anything on the screen doesn't look right.

Introducing the Inquisit Help Wanted forum

seandr — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:25:00 GMT

We often get email from new Inquisit customers looking to hire someone who can whip up some scripts for them in short order. We also get the occassionaly email from a student looking to earn some money writing scripts. To help these customers find each other, we've a new Inquisit Help Wanted forum where you can post your help wanted ads or advertise your programming services.

Host your experiments on our servers

seandr — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:19:00 GMT

The good folks at Millisecond Software have created a new service that allows you to host your web experiments on the millisecond.com web servers. Publishing an experiment on millisecond.com is a simple matter of clicking through our user friendly wizard. No need to worry about administering your own server, we do it for you. Best of all, the new service is free to web license holders. And of course, we will continue to support do-it-yourselfers who wish to host experiments on their own servers.

For more information, see the following web page: http://www.millisecond.com/support/docs/v3/html/howto/howtoweb.htm

If you have a web license, just log in and go to the "Register Inquisit Web Scripts" page (http://www.millisecond.com/user/webscripts.aspx) and click the "Register New Script" link.

-Sean

Announcing 2.0.61004

seandr — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 22:16:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce version 2.0.61004, the latest update to Inquisit. This update was released in October and is free to Inquisit 2.x license holders. You can download it from our web site at http://www.millisecond.com/download.aspx.

The update contains the following features and bug fixes:

* Inquisit Web Edition now supports a new Microsoft technology called ClickOnce for running web experiments from Internet Explorer. A key advantage of ClickOnce is that it allows users who are not logged in as an Administrator to run Inquisit web experiments on their machine.

* Inquisit Web Edition now supports loading scripts from protected web sites that require user authentication.

* We've added two new random selection methods, "replacenorepeat" and "noreplacenorepeat", that randomly select with and without replacement, respectively, and that guarantee no item will be selected twice in a row.

* The picture element has a new command called "transparentcolor" that renders any pixels in the picture matching that color as transparent.

* The video element now supports audio-only media files such as mp3.

* We've also fixed bugs in the autocomplete feature in the editor, the batch element, and many more.

Hope you are enjoying the New Year,
Sean

Announcing Inquisit 2.0.60616.0

seandr — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 21:32:00 GMT

With snowboarding season coming to a close, we've been once again hard at work on Inquisit. The result is perhaps the biggest free update to Inquisit we've ever released. With this release you can run Inquisit Web Edition with Mozilla browsers such as Netscape and Firefox. You can present QuickTime movies and Flash animations in your script. You can specifiy sizes for all visually presented stimuli in terms of pixels, points, percentages, or centimeters. You can present Arabic and Hebrew text. We even got a new logo.

We've also overhauled our documentation, adding new topics, tutorials, and numerous example snippets, making it easier than ever to learn how to write Inquisit scripts.

There's much more detailed in our release notes. If you are considering purchasing Inquisit 2.0, now is the time!