A real-time programming language is described which contains specialized statements for the control of auditory experiments including routine audiometric tests. The program statements correspond closely to prose descriptions of the experimental contingencies making it an easy language to learn and to use. Programs may be prepared and compiled using standard small computer software, and the only specialized program required is a real-time interpreter. Provisions are made for monitoring the experiment in progress and for making any desired changes in the experimental parameters. The language has been implemented on a 4K PDP&L.
One of the stumbling blocks in applying digital computers to the control of psychoacoustic experiments or, for that matter, to the control of any real-time process has been the lack of a high-level programming language which is relatively simple to learn and to use. Languages such as Fortran and Basic have been around for many years and are relatively simple, but they are designed to deal with sophisticated mathematical manipulations (number-crunching, as it is known in the trade). What is needed is a Fortran-like language which, instead of adding, subtracting, squaring, and the like, is able to count responses, time intervals, record events, and turn devices on and off. Such languages do exist (2, 2) and are available as components of computer systems sold by several manufacturers (Grason-Stadler : SCAT; Lehigh Valley: INTERACT;
Texas Instrument: 960A SYSTEM). The language which will be described in the present paper, SNAP (State Notation in Auditory Psychophysics), is one we have developed which has some of the features of the languages mentioned but which was written for the specific purpose of controlling psychoacoustic experiments. Although our requirements were to control behavioral tests in nonhuman primates (.?), the language itself is entirely suitable for use with humans.