Version 3.1

Version 3.1.3, released 15 May 2015

  • Fixed regression bug in the Object menu - the Rename command had been re-mapped to Delete, and the Delete command had been remapped to Remove All.

  • Fixed bug in the Data Traces window: In Trial mode, when a trial ended prematurely -- particularly if it ended at the beginning of the first segment to be displayed in the Data Traces window -- the window would instead display the traces from a previous trial that was still stored in the internal buffers.


Version 3.1.2, released 08 Dec 2014

    • Eliminated the File|Close menu item. This menu command has no usefulness in a single-document style application, and in the past it has often caused Maestro to crash.

    • Removed the Close menu command from the main frame window's system menu and permanently disabled the close ("X") button in the title bar (the button itself cannot be removed). Exiting Maestro via the close button often caused the application to crash and subsequently required a reboot to restore normal operation. Now, users must use the File|Exit command explicitly to shutdown Maestro.

    • Modified both RMVideo and Maestro to support a "two-color contrast mode" for the RMVideo Random-Dot Patch target. The target's color specification includes, for each color component, both a mean M (0-255) and contrast C in % (0-100). If C != 0, then two luminances are defined: Lmax = M(1+C) and Lmin = M(1-C). In this case, half the dots in the patch are painted in one color, while the other half are painted in the other color. RMVideo version = 6.

    • New feature: Trial subsets and subset sequencing. A trial subset is simply a collection of trials within a trial set. It was introduced to permit two levels of sequencing in Trial mode: sequencing of the trial subsets in a trial set, and sequencing of the trials within a given subset. There are 3 options for subset sequencing: Off, Ordered, or Randomized. When turned off, all trials in the set -- including any ensconced in subsets -- are treated as a single group and all supported trial sequencing modes are allowed. When subset sequencing is engaged, only some trial sequencing modes are available. Trial mode's Protocol tab has changed somewhat to accommodate the new functionality. For more details, go here.

    • NOTE: The introduction of trial subsets and the minor change to the definition of an RMVideo Random-Dot Patch target required changes in the Maestro experiment document. Therefore, experiment documents saved under Version 3.1.2 cannot be opened by previous versions of the application.


Version 3.1.1, released 21 Jan 2014

    • Fixed a bug in the operation of the new Chained sequencer modes that caused every trial to be reported as successful, even though some were not. This bug invalidated the trial statistics reported on the Protocol and Statistics tab pages, as well as the results prepared by the new Matlab script findtrialchains(). The bug affected the Chained trial sequencer modes only.

    • The preceding bug meant that, if the animal failed (meaning: trial not saved) the first trial in a new chain, the first successful trial in that chain would lack the "chain start" flag. This impacted the results prepared by findtrialchains(). In this release I modified findtrialchains() to "detect" the start of a new chain if the chain start flag is set OR if the identity of the trial (compared to that in the previous saved trial file in the sequence) changed. Thus, findtrialchains() will produce more accurate results with trials saved using Maestro 3.1.0, despite the bug.

    • [13aug2014] Revised Matlab utility readcxdata() to improve RMVideo target trajectory calculations. Specifically: (1) Target window and pattern velocity calculation for each update frame now uses the fixed video frame period rather than (currentTick-lastFrameUpdate). (2) When an RMVideo dot-patch target includes per-dot noise and its Pattern motion WRT screen? flag is set, the target's per-dot velocity components in xynoisy.dx and dy are now calculated with respect to the fixed screen frame of reference, rather than the target window frame of reference.


Version 3.1.0, released 17 Oct 2013

    • Introducing a new trial sequencer mode: Chained (and Chained NOFIX). In this mode, trial "chains" are randomly presented to the subject. A chain is a sequence of one or more consecutive presentations of the SAME TRIAL. This mode is intended for use in experiments studying the effects of repetition on the subject's performance of a particular "task". For a more detailed description, go here.

    • The grid that appears on the Statistics tab page in Trial mode now comes in two different layouts, depending upon the sequencer mode: the original layout (trial name, # attempts, # completed), or a second layout applicable only to the Chained modes. This second layout lists total counts for successful chains of length 1, 2, 3, 4, ..., 10; successful chains of length 11 or more; and the total # of individual trials attempted and completed.

    • Developed a Matlab script, findtrialchains(), that examines all the Maestro data files in a specified directory and prepares information to help the user locate all file sequences representing successful chains of a particular trial. You'll find a brief description of the function here.