PsychoPy, as I have previously written about (e.g., Free and Useful Software and PsychoPy tutorial) is really a great Python tool for creating Psychology experiments. You can write Python code by either using “code view” or importing the package in your favorite IDE. Furthermore, you can use the builder mode and just drag and drop different items and PsychoPy will create a Python Script for you.
If needed, inline scripts (in Python, of course) can be inserted. That is, you can combine drag-and-drop building with some coding.
In this post, I have collected some tutorial videos that can be useful for someone unfamiliar with PsychoPy.
I created a playlist with four youtube tutorials. In the first video, you will learn how to create a classic psychology experiment, the Stroop task. The second is more into psycholinguistics, and you will learn how to create a language experiment using PsychoPy.
In the third, you learn how to create text input fields in PsychoPy. You will also learn inline Python coding as it is used in this tutorial. In the fourth video, you will get acquainted with using video stimuli in PsychoPy.
Programming for Psychology & Vision Science Tutorial series
Recently I found the following playlist on youtube, and it is amazing. In this series of tutorial videos, you will learn how to use PsychoPy as a Python package. For instance, it is starting at a fundamental level, importing the visual module to create windows. In this video, he uses my favorite Python IDE, Spyder.
The videos are screencasts from the course Programming for Psychology & Vision Science and have ten videos. The first five videos cover drawing stimuli on the screen (i.e., drawing to a video, gratings, shapes, images, dots). By watching these videos, you will learn how to collect responses, provide input, and save your data.
That was all for now. If you know more good video tutorials for PsychoPy, please leave a comment. Preferably the tutorials should cover coding but just building experiments with the builder mode is also fine. I may update my playlist with more PsychoPy tutorials (the first playlist). Here is a PsychoPy tutorial on making a Psychomotor vigilance test (with a download link).
Hi Erik,
Thanks for this website. I’m using psychopy as software for my experiment. I’m doing my master thesis at the moment. I’m not very good at programming. In fact I don’t have any experiences at all and I don’t really understand what python is about -,- I have managed to create an experiment in builder window without paying any attention to the coder window. BUT now I got a big problem. I don’t know how to handle my data. I can see a folder called data and I have tried to open the files. But I don’t know what to do or what it is saying. Is it possible to make data output via the builder window, and do you know how to do so? Thanks for your time. Best, Ann-Sofie
Hey Ann-Sofie,
If you haven’t collected your data yet:
You can specify data file format in the settings (see the settings documentation). I would suggest that you use either .xlsx or .csv because they are easier to handle.
If you have already collected your data you’ll have one of the output files mentioned in the documentation (see Data outputs). E.g., .xlsx files for each subject name. I am not sure what files you have in your Data folder so I can’t really tell how to handle it. If the links don’t help, send me an email or reply to this comment but please provide a bit more information and I will try to help you.