SYMPOSIUM: THE SKED SYSTEM FOR PROGRAMMING AND RECORDING BEHAVIORAL EXPERIMENTS
Arthur G. Snapper, Ronald M. Kadden · 1974
State notation is a language for describing behavioral procedures and data acquisition formats. A minicomputer system has been developed for translating state notation into operating computer programs, which can control 10 simultaneous and independent experiments. A description of the system is provided, including the hardware necessary to interface the computer with the experimental environment Programming minicomputers in machine language can be quite time-consuming, and must be done with great care when it involves on-line process control and data acquisition. This is especially true when several independent processes are being controlled simultaneously by a single computer. At many installations, heavy demands are placed on a minicomputer by research scientists and graduate students, with no experienced computer programmer available to produce the complex programs that arise from ongoing research projects. Even if such services were generally available, the demands for on-line computer time are usually so great that only bits and pieces of free time scattered throughout the day and evening are available for programming. To simplify the problem of program complexity and to make it possible to work within available time, a minicomputer system (SKED) was developed for programming experimental procedures. Although the system described here has