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A programming language for on‐line control of psychological experiments
Author(s) -
Millenson J. R.
Publication year - 1971
Publication title -
behavioral science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.371
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1099-1743
pISSN - 0005-7940
DOI - 10.1002/bs.3830160310
Subject(s) - computer science , compiler , programming language , probabilistic logic , finite state machine , deterministic finite automaton , control (management) , line (geometry) , sequence (biology) , state (computer science) , language construct , automaton , theoretical computer science , artificial intelligence , geometry , mathematics , biology , genetics
A problem‐oriented computer programming language has been developed for on‐line sequence control of psychological experimentation. The language consists of nested blocks of simple English statements whose function is to produce an Automated Contingency Translator (ACT) which periodically samples and updates up to eight independent time‐shared experimental environments. Experimental procedures are mapped by the ACT compiler from the English statements into a probabilistic finite state network in list structure format. An independent operating system then executes the list structure automata: that is, runs the experiments, records and retrieves data, and admits low priority background programs in any available idle time.