MOLE Modifiable Language Experiments

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Welcome to MOLE!

This is the Modifiansflogoble Language Experiment database (abbreviated MOLE). Here you will find some of the most-used MATLAB functions for the protocols run in the Language and Sound Recognition Lab, under the direction of Dr. Sarah Creel. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Number 123-0003. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the Professor Creel and her lab, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Our lab is a developmental lab, with focus on 3-5 year old preschoolers’ word learning. As many developmental researchers know, it is simple to ask an adult to perform hundreds of repetitive trials in front of a computer screen, but it is no easy task to ask children to do the same thing (while still obtaining reliable data). As a result, our experiments are made more engaging for a younger audience (e.g. cartoon characters perform actions on the screen while a voice identifies the character). Because we also collect eyetracking data on our preschool subjects, these experiments must be coded in MATLAB for precise timing data. The goal of this website is to make our commonly-used MATLAB functions available to other researchers, so that they may build off of what we have already created for their own experimental procedures.

On this website, you will find several things of use to you, described below.

  • Read Me’s: Below this post are several other posts that function as read-me’s for the eight functions on this website.  Each read-me walks you through how the function works by detailing the input arguments and by providing examples. If you would like to download a copy to your computer, there are links at the bottom of each post where you may do this.
  • Demo Walkthroughs: On the top navigation bar, you will find a page named Demo Walkthroughs. This page has step-by-step instructions that will guide you through downloading and using these functions on your own computer. It will provide you with a complete list of the files that you will need to run each function’s demo, and will generally serve as a troubleshooting guide for running the demos.
  • Demo Materials: If you hover over the Demo Walkthroughs link, a drop down menu labeled Demo Materials will appear. This page is where you can download the zip file containing all of the materials for the demos (basic functions with internal comments, text files, stimuli, etc).

Please note that comments are disabled on all pages. If you need help beyond what the website provides, there is a Help page listed on the top bar with information to get in contact with Sarah Creel.

 

We hope you find this website useful.  Happy experimenting!

Disclaimer: These functions were created in MATLAB version 2007-2008 on a Mac, for use with Macs. It is possible that problems arise when trying to run some of these functions on a PC or with newer versions of MATLAB.