Survey Results
IV - 2
Out of all psychology departments surveyed 63.7% maintain
their own computer labs, and 70% of departments have computers designated for
undergraduate use. Nearly all respondents (99.1%) indicated that undergraduates have
access to their respective institution's computers (with Internet access) outside of the
department.
The functions that students use computers for
the most are "Word Processing" (93.8%), "Data Analysis" (92.6%),
"Internet Access" (93.8%) (see
Figure 11). The least often indicated activities were "Collecting Data"
(54.7%), and running "Tutorials" (51.4%). Other uses not included in the survey
which respondents indicated were running classroom exercises and experiments, including
presentation of stimulus but not conducting any analysis.
The most commonly used categories of software
on these machines to collect data in lab classes were "Data Simulation,"
"Experiment Generator," and "Experimental package" software (see Figure 12). 25.7% indicated that
they did not use software to collect data in their lab classes. One other category of
software was "locally developed software" (40.3%). Several respondents indicated
using such programs as Macromedia Director and Macromedia Authorware to design their own
experiments.