Microcomputer control of behavior and the acquisition of digital and analog data

✍ Scribed by Robert L Mapou; Frank M Borowiec; Jerry B Richards; Larry D Byrd

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1984
• Weight: 924 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0010-468X
• DOI: 10.1016/0010-468x(84)90024-2

✦ Synopsis

Advances in technology and decreasing costs are enabling microcomputers to displace more traditional devices in the scientific laboratory. The availability of various approaches to software-system development for the use of microcomputers in the on-line control of experiments has contributed to the trend. This report describes a software system developed to control conditioned behavior during schedules of reinforcement while simultaneously accumulating behavioral data and physiological (analog) data using a hardware system based on the Radio Shack TRS-80 Model 1 microcomputer. The software utilizes a high-level interpretive language (Microsoft BASIC), assembly language and compiled BASIC to attain an acceptable execution speed and ease of programming.