What is Habit Software?

Habit 2000 and Habit X 1.0 are Macintosh programs developed by the University of Texas at Austin Children's Research Lab to aid in infant habituation studies. Habit programs may also be useful in other types of infant visual attention studies.

The software allows the user to create experiments in which sequences of audio, video, and/or still image stimuli are presented to participants. Habit programs will dynamically present the stimuli on as many as three different monitors according to the experiment's design parameters. An experimenter will observe the participant and press computer keys corresponding to the focus of the subject's attention. The program will log a variety of information, such as per trial and cumulative look times, direction of looks, habituation criteria, etc.

Habit 2000 and Habit X 1.0 support experiments consisting of pretest, habituation, and/or test phases of stimuli presentation (not all phases need be used). The software allows users to specify a stimulus sequence for each phase that can be predetermined by the experimental design or randomized by the software. A single presentation of a stimulus is called a trial, and the trials may be either fixed-length or subject-controlled (ended by a lapse in attention by the participant). Optionally, trials may be preceded by an "attention-getting stimulus" that is designed to draw the participant's attention to a monitor. The pretest and test phases run for a fixed number of trials. The habituation phase may use a fixed number of trials or be ended by a habituation criterion. The habituation criterion may be defined either in terms of total looking time or in terms of a threshold percent of the looking time established by the experimental design.

Habit 2000 and Habit X 1.0 are available to interested academic researchers free of charge.

If you are interested in obtaining a copy of Habit 2000 or Habit X 1.0, please click the link below.

I am interested in obtaining a copy of Habit 2000 or Habit X 1.0

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