8: Methodology in Measuring Behaviour Flashcards
what is the simple system approach?
Simple behaviours as indices or markers
what are advantages and disadvantages of the simple system approach?
Advantage: parsimony. Ease of replication and quantification. Reductionistic approach.
Disadvantages: missing subtle interactions. Definitions of terms (operational and especially, ostensive definitions) and meaningless statements
challenges of the simple system approach
Issues or questions:
* Easy to determine if the behaviour is present or not?
* Enough to count occurrences or frequencies?
* Expression of the behaviour?
* Intensity important?
* Other modulations?
what are the three little P’s (fentress, 1988)
process (the straw house –> organism x environment)
pattern (the stick house –> event A x event B)- predict pattern of behaviour
phenotype (the brick house –> genes x experience/ environment)- expression of genes, what behaviour looks like
the study of individual behavioural patterns
Particularities of behavioural neuroscience (including clinical/ medical neuroscience) over the other behavioural sciences and neurosciences:
* Direct observations of behaviour: often idiographic, longitudinal and descriptive studies.
* Interest in patterns of behaviour (more or less stereotyped movements or actions)
what is an ethogram
inventory, catalogue, written repertoire of all the
behaviour patterns of a species. They tend to focus on the form
of behaviour, in orders to study behaviour sequences
The brain is a sequencer of movements / motor actions
studying behaviour patterns: ethograms, what do you choose
- Choose the species
- Choose the individual(s), group(s), etc.
- Choose the behaviours, or signs
- Choose the measures
- Choose the sampling rules
- Choose the recording rules
what is a sociogram
Same as ethograms, but for social behaviours
what are ostensive definitions
definitions of the behaviours with detailed descriptions, examples, photos, drawings, etc. Make sure everybody on your team agrees with the categories: This can be a real challenge!
types of consistency and what does it guarantee
intra-observer consistency
inter-observer consistency
This guarantees replicability for your team of investigators or any other team wanting to verify your results or expand on your ideas.
what is intra-observer consistency
(with an intra-observer reliability measure): each observer records SIMILAR behaviours the SAME WAY
what is inter-observer consistency
(with an inter-observer reliability
measure such as an index of concordance, Kappa coefficient,
Kendall coefficient): consistency of recording and scoring for
between ALL OBSERVERS
defining the behaviour’s boundaries
- The issue: the segmentation/clustering of behaviour(s).
- The concept of “bout” (think of the French “un bout” for “portion”, “part”, “segment”).
- Where/when does it start, and where/when does it end? (temporal and spatial boundaries).
- Clusters of behaviours, acts, actions or events.
what are the measures of tendency? (FOLD)
frequencies
occurrences
latencies
durtations
This taxonomy of dependent variables was first suggested by Russell, Mead & Hayes (1954) and points out the particular nature of the concept of “intensity” and distinguishes well between frequencies and occurrences of a behaviour
frequencies
- usually defined as a ratio of occurrences per unit of time
- example: number of pecks per minute
occurrences
- usually defined as a ratio of occurrences per trials, bouts, sequences
- example: number of pecks per sequence
latencies
- time between events, states, actions.
- time between stimulus and reaction to the stimulus (e.g., reaction times)
durations
- duration of a single occurrence.
- total duration.
- mean duration.
- duration as proportion of time
- duration as percentage of total time
measures of intensity common definitions and uses
(many potential operational or ostensive definitions)
Common definitions and uses:
* amplitude or physical quantity.
* for psychologists, concept of “local rate”: number of component acts per unit time spent on the activity. Sped-up or hurried nature of a behaviour.
* rating scales (Likert-like)
Measures of spatio-temporal configuration: sequences
- extracting serial and temporal patterns in a sequence of events (actions or movements) or states.
- issues of predictability, stereotypy, rigidity (temporal, spatial), motor perseverations (repetitions of a behaviour), etc
Sequential analysis: methodology and issues
- Objective: Search for behaviour (spatio-temporal) patterns
- How stereotyped or predictable is the action sequence?
* Random: 0%
* Stochastic (probabilistic): > 0% and < 100%
* Deterministic: 100% - Tools (quantitative): Markovian analysis, Information Theory analysis, Log-linear analysis, time series analysis, etc.
corollaries
- How important is the serial order in behaviour? Lashley!
* How important is the temporal and spatial structure of the sequence? - How preceding events influence or predict the current one or upcoming events?
* Analysis of transitional probabilities (with matrices and diagrams)
* Frequency of trigrams, tetragrams, pentagrams, etc
Stochastic processes steps
identify he monograms, then digrams and transition matrices, then trigrams, etc
Many analyses will stop with digrams (based on the idea
that preceding events influence or predict the current one
or upcoming events)
Patterns tend to emerge, then interpret
Step 1: Monograms
Behaviour sequence:
AABAABABAABAAABAB
Behaviour A: 11
Behaviour B: 6
itentify the number of times each behaviour happens
Step 2: Digrams and
Transition matrices
identify the number of times each 2 behaviour combination happens (ex: aa, ab, ba, bb)
interpretations
Predictive value: Detectable patterns? Structure?
Patterns of behaviour as indicators of neural patterns (e.g., the concept of CPG or central pattern generator).
Contextual analysis: Search for a meaning (zoosemiotics): chickadees are chatting.
About motor cognition (frontal lobes)? Sequence learning?
motor signatures
