Psychtoolbox: Matlab-or Octave-based stimulus presentation library.

Pros:

• Multi-platform (Linux, Mac, Windows).
• Very powerful and with comprehensive support for numerous hardware peripherals (e.g. eye tracking, data recording).
• Extremely precise control of timing for recording responses and presenting stimuli (especially visual).
• Large user community and active forum
• Numerous well documented demo functions that can be readily modified to suit new experiments
• Free and open source

Cons:

• Difficult to learn and requires reasonable command of Matlab/Octave
• No GUI interface
• Requires Matlab (proprietary) or Octave (open source)
• Not yet supported on Apple Metal (which suffers from timing issues and is not recommended at the present)

PsychoPy: Python-based stimulus presentation library.

Pros:

• Multi-platform (Linux, Mac, Windows).
• Powerful and easy to use with an optional drag-and-drop GUI
• Large user community
• Generally good control of timing
• Well documented

Cons:

• Some parts are proprietary/commercial
• Not yet supported on Apple Metal

MGL: Matlab-or Octave-based stimulus presentation library.

For the Linux version, please contact jonas.larsson@rhul.ac.uk for the latest distribution.

Pros:

• Similar to Psychtoolbox, but easier to use
• Built-in task library facilitates experiment design

Cons:

• Only supported on MacOS and Linux (the Linux version is not as comprehensive as the MacOS one)
• Not yet supported on Apple Metal, so will not work on newer Macs
• No Windows support
• Requires Matlab (can be run with Octave but tends to be slow)

E-Prime

Presentation