Optical Pattern and Motion Analysis: Applications in Experimental Psychology

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The most fundamental of experimental psychology's foundations is the quantitative measurement of behavior. Recent improvements in intelligent instrumentation have made systems for quantitative image and motion analysis commercially available. The more sophisticated of these instruments enable rapid high-resolution quantification of multiple moving objects. At the same time a host of laboratory problems in experimental psychology require the accurate quantification of behaviors that can be measured readily by optical means. Examples are the coordinated movement of a limb as it is affected by maturational changes; the locomotor sequence of test animals as they are affected by stimulant drugs; the interactive dynamics of children in a preschool classroom as they are affected by varieties of play activities; the exact location and volume of brain lesions as they relate to observed behavioral changes. A single high-quality quantitative image and motion analysis instrument is being applied in a wide range of laboratory problems similar to these. The major objectives are three-fold: a) immediately enhancing the rigor of existing lab work in several advanced courses as well as ongoing student-faculty research projects; b) improving the variety and quantitative rigor of laboratory work in the majority of second, third, and fourth-level laboratory courses; c) developing a library of instructional applications, as well as a library of applications software, for quantitative image analysis. Quantitative image and motion analysis provides a quantum methodological advance for experimental psychologists in that it confers the capability to measure unobtrusively and simultaneously multiple dimensions of the behavior of multiple organisms. This project brings a state-of-the-art instrument into undergraduate laboratories in a way that invigorates a set of upper division courses. The novel applications this faculty has designed have the potential of serving as a model for other high quality undergraduate psychology programs.