UNDERSTAND HOW A STAIRCASE METHOD WORKS: 1) Set the up/down rule of your staircase method by specifying the number of consecutive incorrect and correct responses as well as the increasing and decreasing rates. The indicated performance criterion is derived from these properties. 2) Select a psychometric function to model the decision process with some values for its alpha and beta parameters (the indicated data point in the right plot indicate the theoretical threshold at performance criterion for the decision process). 3) The left plot shows a simulated experiment using the specified staircase method and the decision model. Compare the estimated and theoretical thresholds as a function of the various parameters! This widget will be included in the iBooks User Guide of our Psykinematix software! Feel free to try it and provide feedback at: widget@kybervision.com. And let us know if you like to get access to an early version of this User Guide in the iBooks textbook format available for iPad only.