PCIbex Satellite Workshop @ CUNY 2021
We’re excited to host a satellite workshop at CUNY 2021, virtually held at Penn:
Wed, Mar 3rd, 2021, 1-3pm EST
Please register for the workshop here: https://forms.gle/ZVQ1ZUan9d9A4m5P7
Watch the Workshop Recording on YouTube
[At some point, there were issues with accessing the YouTube video, but they now seem resolved; as a back-up, the video also is available via Dropbox, but note that the YouTube version is better in that it’s trimmed and has captions added to it]
Attendance Notes:
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Intro Slides (with various relevant links) now available here
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A large part of the workshop will involve working through (parts of) the basic and advanced tutorials on the (new) PCIbex documentation. There’s no need to look at this in advance, but obviously feel free to check it out. You can work along as we go along during the workshop, and/or return to these at your leisure afterwards. For a more conceptual overview of core notions, also see the Core Concepts setion of the documentation.
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We strongly recommend using either Chrome or Firefox as a browser, which work best to get the full range of functionality out of PCIbex. (Eye tracking & audio/video-recording in particular can run into issues on other browsers such as Safari, Microsoft Edge)
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You do NOT need an account on PCIbex to try things out as we work through the tutorial. Of course, everyone is welcome to set up an account on the new PCIbex Farm (and if you do, be sure to confirm your account by clicking on the link in the email you will get) – however, we ask you NOT to create an account right at the start or during the workshop, to avoid any potential unforeseen server load issues with lots of registrations to process in a short amount of time (parallel use of the farm by many people should be fine, but account creation involves various additional processes that could cause issues en masse; just erring on the side of caution here). Creating an account well before the workshop or any time afterwards is of course a good idea if you want to work with the platform.
Workshop Description:
This workshop introduces PCIbex, a free and open-source platform for designing, implementing and hosting online experiments, of use to anyone collecting behavioral experimental data in the cognitive sciences and beyond. In the first part of the workshop, we will begin by introducing basic features and functionalities by reproducing and expanding on this simple experiment. Along the way, you will learn how to develop and host experiments on the (NEW and IMPROVED) PCIbex Farm platform, which comes with its own interface and requires no server setup, software installation or prior knowledge of a programming language. Focusing on fundamental concepts and the basic logic of the interface, this workshop will be useful both to students and researchers new to online experiments and ones with prior experience on othger platforms. The second part of the workshop will point to some more advanced functionalities, including audio and video recording as well as the integration of the WebGazer API for eye tracking, and also provide the chance for Q&A and general discussion.
More about PCIbex:
The PCIbex Farm, at https://farm.pcibex.net/, is a web platform serving two key functions: providing a simple coding interface for implementing experimental designs, and sharing the resulting experiments via web browser both for data collection and Open Science resource sharing. The platform builds on IBEX (Drummond, 2007), but expands its capabilities and makes a much wider range of tasks easily accessible through the PennController.js library; the new PCIbex Farm also offers an overhauled design interface and numerous new functionalities.
PCIbex uses its own mini-language (requiring no JavaScript or other prior programming skills) that provides the flexibility to integrate a wide range of dynamic and interactive features in your experiments, including:
- multimedia stimuli: images, audio and video
- recording audio and video responses
- eye-tracking via the WebGazer API (Papoutsaki et al., 2016)
- self-paced reading
- scripted/ timed events, dynamically unfolding trial structure
- response feedback
The new user-friendly interface provides easy access to all main features on a single page, comes with various templates and allows easy import of existing projects. Experiments can be instantly shared via a link, with easy integration of a variety of recruitment platforms, (SONA, Prolific, Mechanical Turk). A (fully anonymous) ‘demonstration’ link facilitates public access to the actual experiment experience, e.g., during review and for readers of papers. It also comes with a link for cloning the experiment, with full access to underlying code and resources to promote Open Science practices, allowing for replication with a single click.
A more detailed 2-page overview of both the platform and the tutorial can be found here. For more details on usage and features, see the full documentation, as well as the support forum. Direct any questions on PCIbex or the workshop to Jeremy Zehr and Florian Schwarz at support@pcibex.net.
Support the PCIbex farm:
Hosting of the new farm is made possible through generous support by MindCORE - Penn’s hub for the integrative study of the mind. Please consider making a donation to ensure long-term support of this setup, specifying ‘PCIbex’ under ‘special reason’ to designate the funds to support PCIbex hosting.