MATLAB for Behavioral Scientists

Behavioral scientists use computers in virtually all their work―from data collection to analysis, presentation, and simulation. However, there has been no book written to date specifically for behavioral scientists on how to program with a general-purpose programming language. MATLAB for Behavioral Scientists is a tremendously valuable textbook that walks behavioral scientists through the computer programming process, using terms that are relevant to their concerns and appreciating their special programming needs.

Author David A. Rosenbaum, a cognitive psychologist with a Ph.D. in experimental psychology, introduces Matrix Laboratory (MATLAB), a powerful computer programming language with an active community of users engaged in many branches of science and engineering. Among its many attractive features, MATLAB offers high-level commands for performing calculations with large as well as small data sets and for generating publication-quality graphics. Throughout the text, Rosenbaum presents each new principle with one or more illustrations of usable code. In addition, each chapter begins with suggestions regarding which actions to perform, followed by the commands required to do so. The book easily functions as a reference source so that readers can turn to a section of interest and quickly obtain the information desired. An accompanying Web site lists programs and code output, complete with color, motion, and sound.

This textbook will grant behavioral scientists the intellectual freedom to perform virtually any computational function in solving problems, and consequently may allow practitioners to think, write, and speak more clearly.

"This is an excellent text for introducing MATLAB to behavioral science students - cleanly organized, clearly written, with good examples and exercises. It is also an excellent book from which to learn MATLAB on your own." - Charles R. Gallistel, Rutgers University, USA

"Although undergraduate psychology students use MATLAB for exploratory data analysis in an advanced undergraduate laboratory course that I teach, some of them lack confidence in being able to learn to use it effectively. Rosenbaum's book provides them with nearly all the facts about MATLAB that they need for this course. The numerical examples are presented slowly enough that students will consider MATLAB to be a simple and helpful tool." - Russell M. Church, Brown University, USA

"Every cognitive and behavioral scientist, from advanced undergraduate to senior professor, needs a computational "Swiss Army knife" for the acquisition, manipulation, simulation, and visualization of data.  This book helps researchers use MATLAB as effectively as possible. The extensive examples provide a clear tutorial for the novice and a convenient reminder for the expert." - Jonathan Vaughan, Hamilton College, USA

"Rosenbaum's book is a perfect companion for the novice and I am sure it will become a standard reference in our lab." - Volker Franz, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany

"A wonderful introduction to a valuable tool for behavioral scientists."

"This is an excellent book.  It is ideally suited for behavioral scientists who want rapidly to learn what is arguably the most valuable tool currently available for doing scientific computation―MATLAB.   I suspect that it will become an indispensable reference for a whole generation of behavioral scientists." - Erik D. Reichle, University of Pittsburgh, USA

"This book is a concise, engaging, and very well written introduction to the programming of MATLAB. It will be most useful to students in the behavioural sciences. The book provides excellent programming examples that are tailored to the needs of these sciences. It effectively explains the essential features and commands of MATLAB for performing data analysis, plotting the results of such an analysis, conducting computer simulations, and for developing and exploring mathematical models about behaviour and cognitive processes." - Rolf Ulrich, University of Tuebingen, Germany