Comparing random dot motion in MATLAB vs. Inquisit Millisecond

Kimia C Yaghoubi; Sarah Kabbara; Sara Arian; Hadi Kobaissi; Megan A K Peters; Aaron R Seitz

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1035518

Comparing random dot motion in MATLAB vs. Inquisit Millisecond

Front Psychol. 2022 Dec 6:13:1035518. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1035518. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Kimia C Yaghoubi¹, Sarah Kabbara¹, Sara Arian¹, Hadi Kobaissi¹, Megan A K Peters^{2

3}, Aaron R Seitz¹

Affiliations

¹ Perception and Learning Laboratory, Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, United States.
² Cognitive and Neural Computation Laboratory, Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.
³ Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, United States.

Abstract

Random Dot Motion (RDM) displays refer to clouds of independently moving dots that can be parametrically manipulated to provide a perception of the overall cloud moving coherently in a specified direction of motion. As a well-studied probe of motion perception, RDMs have been widely employed to understand underlying neural mechanisms of motion perception, perceptual decision-making, and perceptual learning, among other processes. Despite their wide use, RDM stimuli implementation is highly dependent on the parameters and the generation algorithm of the stimuli; both can greatly influence behavioral performance on RDM tasks. With the advent of the COVID pandemic and an increased need for more accessible platforms, we aimed to validate a novel RDM paradigm on Inquisit Millisecond, a platform for the online administration of cognitive and neuropsychological tests and assessments. We directly compared, in the same participants using the same display, a novel RDM paradigm on both Inquisit Millisecond and MATLAB with Psychtoolbox. We found that psychometric functions of Coherence largely match between Inquisit Millisecond and MATLAB, as do the effects of Duration. These data demonstrate that the Millisecond RDM provides data largely consistent with those previously found in laboratory-based systems, and the present findings can serve as a reference point for expected thresholds for when these procedures are used remotely on different platforms.

Keywords: COVID-19; direction estimation; inter-platform validity; intra-platform validity; motion perception; random dot motion.