Overview

BITTSy runs a number of standard infant/toddler testing paradigms, such as the Headturn Preference Procedure, Preferential Looking Paradigm, and Visual Fixation Procedure. It allows researchers to use either lights or videos as attention-getters and to present stimuli on any given trial that are either audio-only, visual only, or audio-visual. Experimenters can fully determine which stimuli to present on which trials, whether trials are repeated, and whether stimuli are presented in a fixed order, randomized within blocks, or fully randomized. They can set the relative timing of all presentation events, and set up multiple phases within an experiment. Experimenters can specify whether individual stimuli, trials, and experimental phases continue for fixed amounts of time or continue until the child reaches a particular looking/listening criterion. Investigators can code infant looking during testing, or off-line from recordings.

BITTSy creates a raw ("low-level") log file of all events that occur within a session. However, it also includes a separate analysis module to summarize the data in a more usable fashion based on standard analysis requirements. This dual file-function allows an experimenter to go back and reanalyze different aspects of the data at a later time, an option that is not available in most current infant systems.

In the following discussion, we refer to several standard infant paradigms by acronyms:

• HPP: Headturn Preference Procedure

• HVFP: Visual Fixation Procedure / Habituation

• PLP: Preferential Looking Procedure / Looking while Listening