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Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2013 Sep;13(3):598-614. doi: 10.3758/s13415-013-0166-6.
Neuroscience is a rapidly expanding field in which complex studies and equipment setups are the norm. Often these push boundaries in terms of what technology can offer, and increasingly they make use of a wide range of stimulus materials and interconnected equipment (e.g., magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, magnetoencephalography, eyetrackers, biofeedback, etc.). The software that bonds the various constituent parts together itself allows for ever more elaborate investigations to be carried out with apparent ease. However, research over the last decade has suggested a growing, yet underacknowledged, problem with obtaining millisecond-accurate timing in some computer-based studies. Crucially, timing inaccuracies can affect not just response time measurements, but also stimulus presentation and the synchronization between equipment. This is not a new problem, but rather one that researchers may have assumed had been solved with the advent of faster computers, state-of-the-art equipment, and more advanced software. In this article, we highlight the potential sources of error, their causes, and their likely impact on replication. Unfortunately, in many applications, inaccurate timing is not easily resolved by utilizing ever-faster computers, newer equipment, or post-hoc statistical manipulation. To ensure consistency across the field, we advocate that researchers self-validate the timing accuracy of their own equipment whilst running the actual paradigm in situ.
神经科学是一个快速发展的领域,其中复杂的研究和设备设置是常态。这些研究往往在技术所能提供的范围内突破极限,并且越来越多地利用各种刺激材料和互联设备(例如磁共振成像、脑电图、脑磁图、眼动追踪器、生物反馈等)。将各个组成部分结合在一起的软件本身就允许进行更精细的研究,而且似乎毫不费力。然而,过去十年的研究表明,在某些基于计算机的研究中,获得毫秒级精确时间的问题越来越严重,但尚未得到充分认识。至关重要的是,时间精度的不准确不仅会影响响应时间的测量,还会影响刺激的呈现以及设备之间的同步。这不是一个新问题,而是研究人员可能认为随着更快的计算机、最先进的设备和更先进的软件的出现,这个问题已经得到解决。在本文中,我们强调了潜在误差源、其原因以及它们对复制的可能影响。不幸的是,在许多应用中,通过利用更快的计算机、更新的设备或事后统计处理,时间精度不准确的问题不容易得到解决。为了确保整个领域的一致性,我们主张研究人员在实际运行现场范式时,自行验证其设备的时间精度准确性。
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