Presentation and AcqKnowledge: An application of software to study human emotions and individual differences

This work describes an experiment about startle reflex and individual differences in personality with the application of the Presentation and AcqKnowledge software. First, Presentation was useful for the design of the display and timing of a set of pictures from the IAPS (International Affective Picture System) that modulated the elicitation of the startle reflex response to an acoustic stimulus. Second, the AcqKnowledge program allowed to record and store psychophysiological data, while a Java routine helped to transform the output data into a proper data disposition better suited to analyze individual differences. The software used in psychophysiological experiments is of an utmost importance concerning the design and presentation of stimuli, and to the general management of this type of information. In this work, we present an example of the use of two computer programs that are helpful for the research about the psychophysiological bases of individual differences in relation with human personality, even though they are extensible to other biomedical areas of interest. © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd.