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Install and use CogStat on Windows

  1. If you update from a previous version, uninstall the previous CogStat first (uninstall is available in the Start menu). Parallel installed versions may not work.
  2. Download the installer (.exe file), and run it.
    • The installer is not signed at the moment. Your operating system or your anti-virus package may warn you about this.
  3. After the installation, CogStat is available from the Start menu.

(If you want to use CogStat in Jupyter Notebook or if you want to use a smaller installer by adding CogStat to your existing Python installation, see the instructions in the relevant section below.)

Install and use CogStat on Mac

  1. Download the disk image containing the app (.dmg image file), and mount it.
  2. Copy the app file into the Applications folder as instructed to have it installed on your system, or run the Cogstat.app from the DMG directly (in this case, you won’t have CogStat available in the Applications list).
  3. When opening the CogStat app, note that MacOS will remind you to be cautious about the software you downloaded from the internet. Continue with “Open”.

(If you want to use CogStat in Jupyter Notebook or if you want to use a smaller installer by adding CogStat to your existing Python installation, see the instructions in the relevant section below.)

Install and use CogStat on Linux

At the moment, we don’t have a simple Linux installer. However, Python is most probably already installed on your Linux, and it is relatively easy to install CogStat with your Python distribution. See the description below on how to install CogStat in a Python environment.

Also, you can add a shortcut to your menu via the menu editor of your desktop environment or anywhere else. For example, cogstat-env/bin/python -m cogstat or bash -c "source cogstat-env/bin/activate && cogstat". If you need an icon, you can download it from here.

After installing CogStat, you’ll be able to use it in Jupyter Notebook too.

Install CogStat in your Python environment

  1. Download the CogStat python package (.tar.gz file)
  2. Optionally, create a virtual Python environment:
    • For example, python3 -m venv cogstat-env and source cogstat-env/bin/activate
  3. Install CogStat. The method may depend on your system, for example:
    • Use pip: pip3 install cogstat-version.tar.gz[GUI] (use the version number of your downloaded file)
      • If you want to use CogStat only in Jupyter Notebook, then you may install it without the GUI dependencies (i.e., without PyQt) with pip3 install cogstat-version.tar.gz
      • On Linux, use root/admin access to install it system-wide.
    • Anaconda users can also use pip for the installation. After installation, you can use conda list to check if cogstat was successfully installed.
    • (New in v2.5) CogStat uses R for some of the calculations. You have to install R if you want to see these results. In some cases (e.g., in Windows), you may need to set up the R_HOME environment variable.
  4. Run CogStat with the graphical user interface:
    • In your console, type cogstat or python3 -m cogstat
    • If you used a virtual Python environment, after activating the environment, you may use the method above, or without the activation, type cogstat-env/bin/python -m cogstat
  5. Or use CogStat in Jupyter Notebook.
    • After installation, CogStat is available to use in Jupyter Notebook

Install the preview versions of CogStat

Preview versions (beta and release candidate) are our test releases before we release the final version. You can try the new features using the preview version and give us feedback about the software.

  1. Go to the Releases page, and see if the latest release (the one at the top of the page) is a preview release (you can see a Pre-release label next to the version number).
    • If not, then use our latest stable release and enjoy CogStat. Otherwise:
  2. From the Assets category, depending on your operating system, download the relevant .exe (for Windows), .dmg (for Mac), or .tar.gz (for Linux) file, and follow the OS-specific installation procedure as seen above.