Knowledge Base

Problem

Users need to calculate behavioral metrics (e.g., time spent in a zone) that depend on a conditional variable that changes value during the trial — for example, when a subject starts a trial in different locations and zone membership must be evaluated per condition.

Details

EthoVision XT supports analysis profiles with zone-based parameters and trial-list variables. When a variable (e.g., starting arena) changes between trials and the analysis needs to track zone occupancy conditional on that variable's value, users may be unsure how to structure the analysis profile. This is relevant for multi-arena or multi-condition experiments where the same zone name applies differently depending on trial context.

Solution

1. In the Trial List, define your conditional variable (e.g., 'ArenaDepart') with the appropriate values per trial (e.g., A, A', B, B').
2. In the Analysis Profile, create separate 'In zone' parameters for each relevant zone corresponding to each variable value (e.g., 'Time in zone A,' 'Time in zone A-prime,' 'Time in zone B,' 'Time in zone B-prime').
3. Use the trial-list variable to filter or sort results during data export — export results grouped by the variable value to compare time-in-zone across conditions.
4. If you need to calculate time in the 'starting zone' specifically (which changes per trial), create one 'In zone' parameter per possible starting zone, then in your downstream analysis (e.g., Excel or R), select the parameter matching the 'ArenaDepart' value for each trial row.
5. Ensure all zones referenced in the analysis profile are defined in the arena setup.