Psych 254: Computer Methods for Experimental Psychology

Psychology 254: Computing Methods for Psychology
Fall Quarter 2007: Tuesdays, 2-4:50 PM, Franz Hall room A258
Professor: Russ Poldrack, Franz Hall 6639

Syllabus (pdf)

Lectures:

• Lecture 1 - Introduction to programming
• Lecture 2 - Programming constructs
• Lecture 3 - Variable types, functions, debugging
• Lecture 4 - Random numbers, system interaction
• Lecture 5 - Data analysis and signal detection theory
• Lecture 6 - Modeling
• Lecture 7 - Neural networks
• Lecture 8 - Stimulus presentation and psychophysics
• Lecture 9 - fMRI data analysis
  

Example code:

Exercises:

• Exercise 1 - Working with variables and matrices
  
• Exercise 2 - Looping, reading data
• guessing_game.m
• ex2rt.txt
• Problem 1 solution
• Problem 2 solution
  
• Exercise 3 - sorting functions
• Problem 1 solution
• Problem 2 solution
• Problem 3 solution
  
• Exercise 4 - random numbers
• problem 1 example solution
• problem 2 example solution
  
• Exercise 5 - Data analysis and signal detection theory
• problem 1 example solution:
  
• run_glm.m
• create_glm_dataset.m
• estimate_ols.m
• problem 2 example solution
• Exercise 6 - Modeling
• Necessary functions:
  
• power_fun.m
• exp_fun.m
• Exercise 7 - Neural networks
• Necessary functions:
• rp_xor.m
• Exercise 8 - Psychophysics
• Necessary functions (if stats toolbox is not present):
• weibull_cdf.m
  

Note: all of the non-standard MATLAB files necessary to run the exercises are in:

SPM files

MATHWORKS resources:

Learning MATLAB (pdf) - this covers much of the same ground as the MATLAB Getting started page, in case you want a pdf version. It also includes lots of information about installation that you don't need.

Web Resources:

Successful strategies for commenting code - not specific to MATLAB, but a nice guide to commenting your code

Various MATLAB tutorials:

Mathtools.net Tutorial List - a good place to start

Organizing and debugging MATLAB code (pdf) - a useful tutorial on good programming practice

There are a number of home-grown matlab tutorials on the web - here are a few:

http://www.contracosta.cc.ca.us/math/LMATLAB.HTM

http://sun00.rowan.edu/~shreek/networks1/matlabintro.html

1/9/06