Survey Results
IV - 4

        Several different types of commercial software were most commonly indicated as used in lab classes (see Figure 14): Micro-Experimental Laboratory (MEL), 23.5% endorsement of use, MEL Student Lab, 17.7% endorsement of use, Computer Lab in Memory & Cognition, 13.3% endorsement of use, and Laboratory in Cognition & Perception, 8.8% endorsement of use. Several of the other listed commercial software packages were not endorsed by any of the respondents: Nijmegan Experiment Setup (NESU), Expe, SCRT, Experimenter, STM Experimenter, and Xperimenter.
        Some of other types of commercial software not included on the survey but indicated as in the other category by respondents were Axovax, HyperCard, MacLab, LabTech Scientific Solutions LabPac (primitive), Turbo Basic Excel, Psychology on a Disk 4.0, PsychSim 3.1, PsychSim, PsychWorks, The Integrator, Sniffy the Virtual Rat, Experiments in Cognitive Psychology, and InSight 2 — InColor Exploring Perception.
        When asked about the level of customization their software allowed, only 19.9% indicated that they had all the control they needed over the software.
        Since multiple computer platforms and operating systems existed, we inquired as to the most frequently encountered systems (see Figure 15). Older Macintosh systems were not used to much extent, 10.7%. The most frequently encountered Macintosh systems was the "Macintosh Power Mac" (24.8%) and the "Macintosh Power PC" (19.5%). Older PCs are still encountered frequently (56.2% used a PC 486 or lower machine). However, 53.1% indicated that they used a Pentium level machine. For Macintosh the most frequently used operating system (see Table 3) is "Mac OS 7.5" (18.1%). For PC the most frequently used operating system is "Windows 95" (57.5%).