Knowledge Base

Manual Scoring Settings

Learn About

• Scoring behaviors manually

What Do You Want to Do?

• Define the behaviors that you want to record manually
• Edit the manual scoring settings
• Validate the manual scoring settings

Scoring Behaviors Manually

Aim

• To record rodent behaviors that cannot be detected automatically with the Rat and Mouse Behavior Recognition; for example, pouncing or fighting.
• To record behaviors in animals other than rodents; for example, thrashing in fish.

Note: You can also score behaviors after acquisition, for example to correct scoring errors and add data. See Score Behaviors Manually After Acquisition.

Procedure

1. Define the behaviors that you want to record manually.
2. Optional: Score behaviors manually during acquisition. You score behaviors and events by pressing a predefined key or clicking an appropriate button on the screen as soon as the behavior or event occurs. Score behaviors manually after acquisition. Note: This is only possible when you have tracked from a video file, or you tracked live and saved video.

Notes

• Manual scoring settings are not available in a DanioVision experiment.
• Manually-scored behaviors are stored in a special Manual Scoring log associated with the track data.
• If you record video and track later, you can only record events when you do tracking, not during video recording.
• If you are familiar with The Observer XT software, the manual scoring settings in EthoVision XT is a simplified The Observer XT coding scheme. You can export the scored behaviors to The Observer XT for further analysis. See Export Manually-Scored Behaviors.
• With the Rat (or Mouse) Behavior Recognition module, EthoVision XT can detect a set of rodent behaviors automatically. See More About Experiment Settings.

Define the Behaviors That You Want to Record Manually

Prerequisite

Think in advance how the different categories of behavior relate to each other. You may for example want to score different types of grooming (Unilateral Stroke, Bilateral Stroke, etc.). Each type will be a behavior; however, these are best organized in a group. If you plan to score behaviors that do not relate to each other (for example Rearing and Drinking), they do not need to be defined in a group.

Procedure

1. Choose Setup > Manual Scoring Settings, or in the Experiment Explorer, click Manual Scoring Settings.
2. Click the Add Behavior button or press Ctrl+B. The Add Behavior window appears.
3. Next to Behavior Name, enter the name of the behavioral category you want to score. For example, Follow, or Bite.
4. Next to Behavior Type, choose the type of behavior. This choice affects how you score the behavior relative to others. See Behavior Types.
5. If in the previous step you have chosen Mutually-Exclusive, then the Behavior Group list becomes available. Type in the name of the group the behavior belongs to, or, if you have already defined it, select it from the list. If you have chosen Start-Stop or Point Event, the behavior cannot be part of any group, and therefore the Behavior Group list is not available. Go to the next step.
6. Enter a description (optional) for the behavior.
7. If you think that the behavior is active at the start of the trial, select the Initially Active option.
8. Click OK. The behavior is listed in the table, under the group it belongs to.
9. In the cell under Keys, select the keyboard key that you want to use for scoring that behavior. See Choose the Keys for Coding.

Behavior Types

Mutually Exclusive

The behavior will be part of a group, where one item, when scored, automatically switches off the item currently active. For example, you define a group of two behaviors, Rearing and No Rearing. When the subject shows rearing, score this behavior. Rearing is now active. As the subject stops rearing, score No Rearing. This state is now active, while Rearing is stopped automatically.

Within a mutually-exclusive group, only one behavior can be defined as initially active. If one of the behaviors of a Mutually-Exclusive group is already selected as Initially Active and you check the same option in the Add Behavior window for a second behavior, the program asks you whether you want to remove that option for the first behavior. Click Yes to do so. If you click No, you return to the dialog so you can clear the Initially Active option.

Start-Stop

Scoring that behavior is fully independent of other behaviors. To stop that behavior you must press the Stop key.

Point Event

With this option you only score a point of time when the behavior occurs. Choose this option when you only want to measure the frequency, not the duration of the behavior. Typical examples of such behaviors are biting and twitching.

In the Dependent Variable Plots, a Point Event would look like this:

Choose the Keys for Coding

• It is not required to use key codes. You can also score events using the mouse.
• Choose keys that you can press without taking your eyes off the keyboard (for example A, S, D) rather than keys which are easy to remember. If your scoring settings contain so many behaviors that you cannot remember the keys, it is probably too complex.
• For each cell you can enter one key, among those available: a...z, and 0...9.
• If your setup includes multiple subjects and arenas, choose a key for each arena-subject-behavior combination.
• For Start-Stop behaviors, choose a key to start the behavior and a key to stop it. You can also define the same key for starting and stopping it.
• Only the keys available are listed, not those already in use. For Start-Stop behaviors, you can select the same key for both starting and stopping a behavior.