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