Acta Biologica 36. (1985)
3-4. szám - A. Nagy–A. Dóka–V. Csányi: A microcomputer method for recording and analysing behavioural elements
A. NAGY et al. ing etc. It should be mentioned here, that we divided the behavioural elements into two categories: active and passive. Each of the elements belongs to one of these sub-groups. Consequently, if the experimenter changes an element, its sub-group also has to be redefined. The program offers optionally up to three different sound signals,, which may be asked by the desired moments of the running observation to remind the operator of any kind of necessary manual operation, e.g. to turn on various devices or to terminate recording. The next part of the program is very important. The experimenter is required to define the beginnings and the ends of the time intervals for which the basic statistics of the elements are wanted. There is no restriction regarding the definition of the time intervals, except that the maximum number of the intervals is limited to twenty. The last information necessary for the operator before the actual data recording is a code for the individual animal that will be monitored in the test. Then he is prompted to indicate his readiness to begin by pressing the space bar. The latter operation should coincide with the beginning of the test period. The screen is cleared, and a digital clock immediately appears on the top right corner of the monitor. During the observation the experimenter is prompted to indicate the behaviour of the animal by pressing the corresponding key of the element just after the animal has finished it. It may seem peculiar that the elements are recorded at their termination, but as practice has shown, to recognize an element is in many cases easier at termination than at the very moment of beginning. Whenever a key is pressed, the computer displays the three-letter abbreviation of the corresponding behavioural element and the time when it has been keyed in. Since the whole behavioural repertoire of the animals is covered by the elements, the duration of each element is defined as the real time elapsed between one and the next key-stroke. There are two possibilities to edit the already recorded data during the observation itself. If the operator accidentally presses a key or does not want the last entry, it can be erased by pressing the key “0”. The more useful editing function is the following. If the experimenter presses a key other than wanted to, the wrong entry can be replaced by holding down the control (CTRL) key and pressing the key for the right behavioural element. This way the original termination time is kept. By keying in “RETURN”, the operator can terminate the data-recording session. Then the computer starts the data processing, and gives the statistics of the elements within the defined time intervals. The summarized statistics for active and passive elements are also displayed. If needed, the entire behavioural sequence for the whole experiment could be displayed and/or printed in the following form: (XXX/000) : (XXX/000) . . . (XXX) notes the code, (000) the duration (in seconds) of the given behavioural elements. After the