>Psychtoolbox>PsychProbability

[seed,whichGen] = ClockRandSeed([seed],[whichGen])
ClockRandSeed seeds the random number from the time-of-day clock or another
“random enough” random source, e.g., high resolution time, or a true
random number source. If ‘seed’ is passed this is used instead of a
random source or clock time.

‘whichGen’ optionally allows selection of the random number generator.
If omitted, the recommended Mersenne-Twister will be used on both
Matlab and Octave.

If supported, the rng() function will be used, with rng(‘shuffle’) if
‘seed’ is omitted. Otherwise the old rand()/randn() setup method is
used, with ‘reset’ on Octave for truly random init from /dev/urandom
or high resolution clock time. On Matlab the old seed = fix(1e6*sum(clock))
will be used.

NOTE: There is a page in the 2017 Matlab docs describing the issues around
random number generator selection and seeding. Type “help rand” and then
follow to the note on “Replace Discouraged Syntaxes of rand and randn” that
is at the end of the Description section.

For reseeding on old Matlab versions, note the following:

The multiplier 1e6 in fix(1e6*sum(clock)) is bigger than the 100
suggested by Mathworks (see help RAND). They suggest 100*sum(clock), but
this would only change the seed once every 1/100 sec, which might
correspond to many iterations of a loop. With the bigger multiplier it’s
pretty sure (depending only on clock grain) that two successive calls
will generate different seeds.

Also unlike the Mathworks suggestion (see help RAND), we call FIX. This
has no effect on RAND and RANDN, but makes it easier to correctly print
the seed to a file. When a random seed generates an interesting result
one would like to be able to recreate the conditions that generated the
run. If the seed 1e6*sum(clock) is printed to a file, ‘%.0f’ will often
round it differently than RAND would.

See also: rng, rand, randn.