Knowledge Base

Scoring Events

You can score required modifiers in any order you want, but they will appear in the event log in the same order as in the coding scheme.

In this example, the behavior 'Walk' has two modifier groups: 'Speed of walking' and the associated 'Breathing rate' of the subject.

• A - The Event Log before the Modifiers of behavior Walk are scored; the Modifier column indicates in gray the required Modifier groups.
• B - The Codes window with required Modifiers groups and their Modifiers.
• C - The Event Log after the modifiers of 'Walk' have been scored.

1. If you have selected Add Comment in the Properties pane of the subject or the behavior you have just scored (see Define Subject Properties), you must add a comment. The Comment cell in the event line will be activated, with the word Comment in gray. Enter the comment, and press Enter. You can also copy and paste comments. If the Comment column is not present in your event log, right-click a column header and select Comment. If you do not want to add any comment, just press Enter.
2. The event is now complete.
3. The Subject cell in the next row is selected, and the Codes window now shows the subjects again. Add new events by repeating the steps above.
4. To stop a behavior or modifier, first score the subject, then:
   • Start-stop behavior – score the stop of the behavior/modifier. You cannot do this before the subject was scored.
   • Mutually exclusive behavior – score another element in the same group and its modifier. Score the stop of the behavior if no other behavior is active.
   • Mutually exclusive modifier – score a behavior and then another modifier.

Notes

• The time is assigned to an event when the first element of the coding scheme is entered, no matter whether it is a subject or a behavior. In the case you enter only free text, the time is assigned when you enter the first character under Comment.
• If scoring modifiers is not compulsory (see Define Modifier (Group) Properties), you can skip them by placing the cursor in the Comment column, or pressing Enter.
• If you do not want the Comment cell to be selected every time you score an event, make sure that for all behaviors and subjects the Add Comment option is not selected. See Define Subject Properties and Define Behavior (Group) Properties in Set Up Your Project.
• Press the Undo button on the toolbar to correct a mistake. To make a correction undone, press the Redo button. For information on how to correct scoring errors after you finished the observation, see Correct Event Log Errors Manually.

Instantaneous Sampling

Aim

To code your observation with instantaneous sampling.

Prerequisites

• You created and started an observation.
• You chose Instantaneous Sampling as the Observation method.

Procedure

1. A sound signal is given at the observation start. The Event Log shows all subjects from the Instantaneous Sampling subject group at time 0. It also shows the behavior groups that are linked to the subjects and must be scored in gray (see Define Subject Properties). When you carry out an Offline observation, the video file pauses until you scored all subjects, irrespective of whether you selected the option Pause Playback When Scoring an Event in the Project settings. The Codes window shows the current Subject-Behavior combination in the Status column and the behavior group that needs to be scored.
2. Score a behavior for each subject. As soon as the behavior is scored it appears in the event log.
3. If the behavior was linked to one or more modifiers, the modifier cell will be selected. The Codes window now shows all the modifiers that can be attached to the scored behavior. Score the modifier. The modifier appears in the event log.
4. If you have selected Add Comment in the Properties pane of the subject or the behavior you have just scored (see Define Subject Properties or Define Behavior (Group) Properties), the Comment cell will be selected with the word 'Comment' in gray. Enter a comment, and press Enter. If you do not want to add a comment, just press Enter. The event is now complete.
5. Add new events by repeating the steps above to finish scoring the complete sample.
   • Live – Wait until the sample interval has elapsed to score the next sample (indicated by a sound signal).
   • Offline – Click the Next Sample button to position the video at the time of the next sample.

Use the Quick Review button to play back the video/audio file a few seconds before the sample time. This is useful to determine what behavior each subject is performing.

What's Next?

• To stop the observation, see Stop the Observation.
• To correct scoring errors, see Correct Event Log Errors Manually.
• For more information, see the Notes on Instantaneous Sampling and How To… procedures.

Notes on Instantaneous Sampling

Timers

The Timers window displays the Remaining Interval Time.

• Live – the timer counts down until the next Instantaneous sample.
• Offline – the timer displays the sample interval length.

If no Timers window is visible, choose View Settings > Show Window > Timers. You can drag the Timers window to below or next to the Event Log so you can easily see how much time is left until the next sample. To hide specific timers, right-click in the Timers window and deselect the timer.

Subjects

Subjects in an instantaneous sample block appear in the order they are placed in the coding scheme. Click the behavior cell of another subject to score in a different order.

Modifiers

If modifiers are not required (see Define Modifier (Group) Properties), you can skip them and go to the Comment column or start a new event line by pressing Enter.

Comments

If you do not want the Comment cell to be selected every time you score an event, make sure that for all behaviors and subjects the Add Comment option is not selected. See Define Subject Properties and Define Modifier (Group) Properties in Set Up Your Project.

Samples

• When the next sample begins before you finished scoring the previous sample (this only occurs in a Live observation), the non-scored events are set to "missing".
• When your observation duration is a multiple of the sample interval (see More Options), no sample is scored at the end of the observation. If you do want to score this sample, make the observation for example 1 second longer.