Mission | Resources | Services offered | People | Contacts | Links | How to propose your project   

Mission

The Experimental Psychology Lab (EPL) is part of the interdisciplinary CIMeC facilities.  EPL is operational since 2006, and provides scientific and technical support to research in human cognition, with particular emphasis on behavior and electrophysiology. To this end, the facility includes several systems for eye tracking, multisensory stimulation, kinematic and EEG recordings.

Resources    

Presentation of experimental stimuli is typically controlled by Eprime, Matlab (Psychtoolbox) and Open Sesame. EPL consists of five different lab areas.

Psychophysics Labs

There are five workstations, all equipped with a PC, monitor, and sound speakers (some workstations are also equipped with a response box, voicekey, microphone and headset). Two workstations are equipped with an Eyelink host Computer for connecting Eye tracking remote systems (desktop/remote Eyelink 1000). A PLATO (Portable Liquid-Crystal Apparatus for Tachistoscopic Occlusion) system is available for the tachistoscopic presentation of separate stimuli to the two eyes. Two stereoscopes are also available.

Eye Tracking Lab

The tracking of eye movements is conducted with the help of five SR Research Eyelink 1000 Systems: four remote systems, one tower-mount in a dedicated area. In addition, there is a monitor-integrated Tobii T120 (Tobii AB).

Multisensory Lab

The multisensory lab is equipped with a sound-attenuated and anechoic booth and currently hosts several devices for stimulation in vision, hearing, touch and olfaction. The equipment for tactile stimulation includes two systems for electro-tactile stimulation (Digitimer), and some custom-built interface for vibrotactile stimulation. A custom-built olfactometer allows for the presentation of up to 8 different odors. A BIOPAC system for Psychophysiological measurements is also available in the lab.

Kinematics Lab

The Lab is equipped with the instruments for recordings of action movements (mainly, hands and arms). The Qualisys motion capture system provides quantitative measurements of human movements (http://www.qualisys.com). The system comprises 4 infrared digital cameras that capture and calculate 2- and 3-D coordinates of markers placed on the participant.

Baby Lab

The Baby Lab is a child-friendly laboratory for babies from 0 to 24 months, composed of two separate rooms: the first is dedicated to behavioral / observational experimentation, furnished with child-friendly furniture and objects, equipped with a PC, HD-camera and TOBII eye-tracker; the second is set up for Electroencephalography (EEG) studies, equipped with a high density EEG recording system suitable, for comfort and shortness of preparation, for testing infants, and several cameras for monitoring the child's behavior and eye movements.

Electroencephalography (EEG)

The EEG lab has dedicated space for EEG preparation (preparation room), EEG recordings (silent booth) and EEG data analyses (analysis room). The EEG lab is equipped with a 64-channel system for AC/DC recordings (Brain Products GmbH), an electrically-shielded booth (Sispe), and three workstations for EEG/ERP analysis (BrainAnalyzer, Brain Products GmbH). The electrical brain activity is recorded by means of EEG caps (EASYCAP or actiCAP). An Eyelink 1000 (SR Research) can be used to concurrently record eye movement and EEG.

Services offered   

The Facility provides support in training and in some basic aspects of project execution.
Staff currently provides basic support for training and project execution for CIMeC members, DIPSComembers and their collaborators.

Staff  

Contacts    

The EPL Lab is situated in Palazzo Fedrigotti, corso Bettini 31, 38068 Rovereto (TN)
For any inquiry send an email to the massimo.vescovi@unitn.it

Links    

How to propose your project     

Access rules

To access EPL, researchers submit a Research proposal form (link) to the Faculty coordinator and the technician in charge, specifying the names of the researchers involved and documenting the approval of the project by the Ethics Committee of the University of Trento, if required by the project (essential for EEG lab). The researchers also have to get in contact with the technician in charge before setting up their experiment. T

o use the Eye tracking equipment and for the Kinematics Lab, the researchers have to undergo a brief training with an expert user.

For the EEG Lab, only independent users can conduct EEG recordings. When submitting the project to the Ethics Committee, each P.I. must indicate the name of the independent user (already in the list of independent users, or to be trained to this purpose), who will be in charge of all the EEG procedures in the lab for the project. Normally undergraduate students cannot be independent users. To become independent users, researchers have to follow a training, which consists in assisting a variable number of EEG recording sessions conducted by independent users of the lab. The faculty coordinator or a technician delegated will then assist one EEG recording session conducted by the researchers to verify their independence.

To get access to and use the labs, researchers must:

  1. pass the Course on Health and Safety in the workplace of the University of Trento, as per the national legislation;
  2. demonstrate the knowledge of the the general regulation and any additional regulation adopted for a specific lab and comply with  them.

Users is provide with an electronic device (deposit required) to access to the laboratories and have to book the various facilities using the booking system of the CIMeC. To access to any university and CIMeC services users are required first to activate a valid profile in the Academic Database (you can find the request form on the Wiki page and send it to the CIMeC secretariat).  Therefore any of the above procedures is subject to activate a valid profile in the Academic Database.