Tatool: A Java-based open-source programming
framework for psychological studies
Claudia C. von Bastian & André Locher & Michael Ruflin
Published online: 22 June 2012
#
Psychonomic Society, Inc. 2012
Abstract Tatool (Training and Testing Tool) was developed
to assist researchers with programming training software,
experiments, and questionnaires. Tatool is Java-based, and
thus is a platform-independent and object-orie nted frame-
work. The architecture was designed to meet the require-
ments of experimental designs and provides a large number
of predefined functions that are useful in psychological
studies. Tatool comprises features crucial for training studies
(e.g., configurable training schedules, adaptive training
algorithms, and individual training statistics) and allows
for running studies online via Java Web Start. The accom-
panying “Tatool Online” platform provides the possibility to
manage studies and participants’ data easily with a Web-
based inte rface. Tatool is published open source under the
GNU Lesser General Public License, and is available at
www.tatool.ch.
Keywords Cognitive training
.
Experimental software
.
Java
.
Open-source
.
Online experiments
Various software packages fo r conducting behavioral
experiments exist—for example, E-Prime (Schneider,
Eschman, & Z uccolotto, 2002), Inquisit (Draine, 1989),
and SuperLab (Haxby, Parasuraman, Lalonde, & Abboud,
1993). However, the majority of this experimental software
is proprietary, and thus is often expensive and not extensible
to the demands encountered in the wide range of computer-
based psychological research. There are also a growing
number of freely available or open-source experimental
software packages (e.g., Psychophysics Toolbox for MAT-
LAB, Brainard, 1997; Pelli, 1997; PyEPL, Geller, Schleifer,
Sederberg, Jacobs, & Kahana, 2007; Functional Measure-
ment Builder Suite, Mairesse, Hofmans, & Theuns, 2008;
TScope, Steve ns, Lammertyn, Verbruggen, & Vandieren-
donck, 2006; and PsyToolkit, Stoet, 2010), which are more
cost-effective and often more flexible. However, most of
these software packages generate platform-dependent code
that is suitable solely for specific operating systems (e.g.,
Microsoft Windows or Mac OS). Moreover, some software
packages can only be used for offline research in the lab.
Tatool is an open-source programming framework based on
Java, and hence is ext ensib le and platform -ind epen de nt.
Tatool was developed speci fically with a focus on facilitat-
ing cognitive training research, but it can be used for setting
up experiments and questionnaires as well, both online and
offline. With Tatool, one compiled version of the experi-
mental tasks can be distributed online to all participants.
This is particularly useful for cognitive training studies, in
which it is often requi red that trai ning sessions run self-
administered from participants’ home computers with dif-
ferent operating systems. Moreover, Tatool provides multi-
ple features that are crucial for conducting training studies
(e.g., session schedulers, adaptive training algorithms, and a
Web-based interface to monitor participants’ commitment),
which will be described in more detail below.
Tatool is published open source under the GNU Lesser
General Public License. By editing the source code of
Tatool , the software can be extended to virtually every need
that may be encountered during the technical development
C. C. von Bastian (*)
Department of Psychology, University of Zurich,
Binzmühlestrasse 14/22,
8050 Zurich, Switzerland
e-mail: c.vonbastian@psychologie.uzh.ch
A. Locher
Bristol, UK
M. Ruflin
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Behav Res (2013) 45:108–115
DOI 10.3758/s13428-012-0224-y