Optical Pattern and Motion Analysis: Applications in Experimental Psychology

实验心理学最根本的基础是行为的定量测量。最近智能仪器的改进使定量图像和运动分析系统商业化。这些更复杂的仪器可以快速地对多个运动物体进行高分辨率的量化。与此同时，实验心理学中的许多实验室问题需要对行为进行精确的量化，这些行为可以很容易地通过光学手段进行测量。例如，当肢体受到成熟变化的影响时，肢体的协调运动；兴奋剂对实验动物运动序列的影响；学龄前儿童在课堂上的互动动态，因为他们受到各种游戏活动的影响大脑损伤的确切位置和体积与观察到的行为变化有关。一种高质量的定量图像和运动分析仪器正在广泛应用于类似的实验室问题。主要目标有三个方面：a)立即提高几个高级课程中现有实验室工作的严谨性，以及正在进行的学生与教师的研究项目；B)在大多数二、三、四级实验课程中提高实验室工作的多样性和定量严谨性；C)开发用于定量图像分析的教学应用程序库以及应用软件库。定量图像和运动分析为实验心理学家提供了一种量子方法上的进步，因为它赋予了不显眼地同时测量多个生物体行为的多个维度的能力。该项目将最先进的仪器带入本科实验室，以一种激发高年级课程的方式。该学院设计的新应用程序有可能成为其他高质量本科心理学课程的典范。

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.