MATLAB & PsychToolBox

MATLAB

MATLAB is a programming environment widely used in research and industry for matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages. In psychology research it is also used to control experimental hardware and to collect and display data.

Faculty, students and staff may license MATLAB for use on their computers. If MATLAB needs to be installed on a lab computer, please put in a request to psychtech@ithelp.uoregon.edu so that PsychIT can help with licensing.

The licensing with MathWorks for MATLAB is negotiated by Central IT every September. This can cause invonvenient licensing notices to be generated by MATLAB throughout the weeks leading up to the current year's license's expiration. Where possible, it is advisable to plan research around any gap between the time the old license expires and MATLAB ceases to function and the begin of a new licesning cycle (this may awkwardly occur during early October).

Additionally, as new licenses for MATLAB are negotiated, it may transpire that older versions of MATLAB are not able to communicate with MATLAB's licensing server or require a manual insertion of activation codes into MATLAB's utility files. This will become more of an issue on legacy computers needed to run the PsychToolbox module.

Before You Install

MATLAB should run on most computers built after 2005. MathWorks suggests that machines running MATLAB have 2 megabytes (MB) of RAM. Hardware requirements may be found here: http://www.mathworks.com/products/matlab/requirements.html. It requires a CPU with the SSE2 instruction set, which newer machines have (see http://www.mathworks.com/support/solutions/en/data/1-B3MR75/ for more information)

MATLAB comes in a wide array of versions. To choose the right version for your research needs, be sure to answer the following questions:

Is there a prefered version of MATLAB in use by your co-researchers? The choice becomes easier if there is already a version chosen by a lab.
Will you be using PsychToolBox? If so, you'll need a 32-bit version of MATLAB. The newest 32-bit version of MATLAB is 2010a (which is not the brightest, absolute newest version).
Will you be using older, legacy computers and hardware? Older lab equipment may only know how to talk to older computers. Older computers may be limited to 32-bit machines.

MATLAB is a large software package; a high-speed internet connection will shorten the installation time -- depending on the computer's CPU speed and the internet connection speed, installation can take anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes.

Be sure to have the UO site license number handy. It may be obtained via Central IT's software center web page: http://it.uoregon.edu/software/matlab.

Download and Install

Connect to the MathWorks web site at http://www.mathworks.com/.
Whe you connect to the MathWorks web site, there is an option to log in. You may create a new account if you need to.
Once you've logged in, click on the web page's top left menu item, "Products and Services".
Next, in the MATLAB Overview menu, click on the link "Downloads & Trials".
In the main body of the web page, under the Licensed Products section, click on the link "Download licensed products".
The next page will display the download for the latest release of MATLAB (e.g., R2010a). If you need to change the version, do so here.
Select the platform.
Click on DOWNLOAD; this will download an installer.
Once the installer is on your computer, start it up.
The installer will ask a bunch of questions; the default options will work fine.
The last thing the installer will ask you for is your e-mail address and a license number. Use your UO e-mail address and the license number from http://it.uoregon.edu/software/matlab to activate MATLAB.

Additional MATLAB Resources

2007 course notes for Ione Fine's "MATLAB for the Behavioral Sciences: How to program your own experiment" are located here: http://faculty.washington.edu/ionefine/MatlabCourseNotes07.html The last half of these notes address specific issues within PsychToolBox.

PsychToolBox

Some researchers use a component of MATLAB called PsychToolBox. PsychToolBox is a collection of programs used to display visual stimuli. As of September 1, 2011, PsychToolBox will only run with the 32-bit version of MATLAB.

Be sure to confirm that your computer equipment is able to run PsychToolBox: http://psychtoolbox.org/wikka.php?wakka=SystemRequirements before installing. For example, newer versions of MATLAB are 64-bit, and so do not support running PsychToolBox. PsychToolBox uses hardware in particular ways and not all hardware is compatible.

PsychToolBox may be downloaded from http://psychtoolbox.org/wikka.php?wakka=HomePage

Additional PsychToolBox Resources

Psychophysics Toolbox Yahoo Group: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/psychtoolbox/

John Burridge, Web Communications Technician ⚣ he/him/his
University of Oregon, Robert D. Clark Honors College
M-F: 8AM-Noon, 1PM-3PM burridge@uoregon.edu http://pages.uoregon.edu/burridge