Behavioral Research Blog

Environmental enrichment rescues autistic-like behaviors in mice

A recent mice study from The Scripps Research Institute shows that behavioral therapy might still be successful in later diagnosis of ASD with macrocephaly, laying groundwork for successful late interventions.

Early infant behavior development of hand preference

There are many reasons to study the development of hand preference in infants. For one thing, being left-handed can be an advantage in one-on-one sports such as tennis.

How to build a consumer behavior research lab?

In order to get off to a good start, it is best to describe the research or tests that are going to be performed in detail.

Behavioral research shows how elephants like their new habitat at the Oregon Zoo

The elephants at the Oregon Zoo got a new and improved place to live. This 4-year study described in detail how the animals adapted and liked the new features of their habitat.

Five studies showing the power of multi-modal data in behavioral research

The advantages of using multimodal data over a single modality are that it reveals deeper insights and also if one modality fails there can be enough redundancy in the data to still make sense of it.

Predicting behavior from non-verbal communication

Suppose a darts player is ready to throw a dart while showing a smile on his face. Would he hit the attempted number of points as opposed to missing the shot if he looked grumpy? Research has been done to figure this out.

Citizen science in research: studying contaminated drinking water with zebrafish

Local residents, students and scientists joined forces to investigate harmful contaminants in drinking water wells in New England. Behavioral effects of these contaminants were studied in zebrafish.

Parent-child interaction – research in a lab and on-site

Early in life, children are not capable of filling out a complete questionnaire or talking to an interviewer.

7 tips to make coding behavioral data more fun

Coding behavioral data helps to understand what your data represents. But let's face it, it isn't much fun to do and it takes a lot of time. Here are 7 tips to make the coding process more effective.

How to collect high quality data in an observation lab

Controlled conditions and accurate data recording are key in scientific success. A stationary observation lab provides these controlled conditions while allowing scientists to observe test participants unobtrusively.

Advancing the novel object test: 3D printing and deep learning

To improve standardisation and consistency in the novel object test, Spry et al designed the 'CapTouch' system: capacative objects that can automatically register interaction. But what about deep learning in EthoVision XT?

Anxiety and Autism

The EU-AIMS and AIMS-2-TRIALS projects have carried out some interesting studies teasing out the causes of anxiety in children with autism.