Observations Flashcards
Why do people use observational methods?
Questionnaires are limited applicability - there is only one species for language, they won’t work in the majority of organisms in the world
Apparatus limits generalisability - if behavioural measuring equipment is noticeable, results only apply to organisms that are habituated to that apparatus
Context dependent behaviour - context may be difficult to replicate in controlled environments - e.g. riot behaviour. May be interested in something you cannot study in the lab
How many non linguistic species are there?
3,000,000+
How have animals been studied in the past?
Chimp interacting with a keyboard through symbols - but lots of training required
Animals in Skinner box - every level pressed is objectively recorded, but not very detailed
What is the apparatus used to discover?
It can be very sophisticated, can relate behaviour to internal ongoing processes
Are observations subjective?
You need a subject to code it, but the behaviour physically exists. The patterns are objectively real
What did Dave discover through observations?
That chimps could also point as well - created a coding scheme that pointing was a communicative signal
What are the steps in observational research?
Split up into:
observational stream: ask, observe informally, choose measures, choose recording method, collect and analyse data
experimental stream: hypothesise, predict, design, experiment, analyse, interpret, PUBLISH
not a rigid approach
How are the steps different in other research?
Sometimes people observe informally - find something out - then ask questions
What did Dave find?
That all of the cage mates displayed the behaviour too, not just Clint
Only 2 showed the behaviour in the absence of humans - signals were socially directed
What does ask questions refer too?
The more you know about the published literature, the more sophisticated the questions are, but if you are the first to ask a specific question, then even simple questions are scientifically valuable
Why do you need to observe informally?
Libitum sampling - sitting around and watching the population of interest, learning the typicality of behaviour. Need to know your subject pool first, otherwise could skew the data
Why do you need to choose methods?
You don’t want to code for behaviour that doesn’t directly answer the research question - answer the question ‘what to measure’
means someone else can use your coding scheme
What does recording methods refer too?
Answers the questions: when and how do you sample behaviour
What are the two ways of defining the measures?
Operational definitions - specify the physical requirements for coding a behaviour - e.g. a lever press by a rat
Ostensive definitions - provide examples through pictures or diagrams, along with written descriptions of the behaviour of interest (coordinated play versus solitary play - need to describe how you are differentiating between these?)
How do you classify the measures?
Events - occurrences, usually of short duration - frequencies, am of times something happens
States - long duration events, such as sleep or play. Counting them in terms of duration
What does ethogram mean?
Coding scheme
What are the types of measures?
Latency Frequency Rate Duration Proportion
What does latency refer too?
How long a subject takes to respond to a stimulus
e.g. RT or the time between two events
What does frequency refer too?
The total number of occurrences of a behaviour during the observational interval
problem: some people think on its own it isn’t informative, some think it should be expressed in terms of time but sometimes it is fine not to do this - e.g. when the observation interval is the same for all subjects and conditions
What does rate refer too?
Frequency per unit time. Divide the frequency by the time: e.g. Clint pointed 167 in 18.4 hours so his pointing rate was 167/18.4 = 9 per hour
What does duration refer too?
The total amount of time that a single occurrence is manifested during the observation interval
What does proportion refer too?
The proportion of total time that a behaviour occurred or the proportion of total behaviours that particular behaviour occurred - e.g. if two gorillas spend 30 mins out of 45 in rough play, then they spent 30/45 or a proportion of .67 in play - not expressed in physical units such as time
What are the scales of measurement?
Non parametric statistics:
Nominal - categorical, either fit in or don’t (gender)
Ordinal - ranking (dominance hierarchy)
Parametric statistics:
Interval - 0 is arbitrary, e.g. temperature, 0 doesn’t mean no heat
Ratio-interval - continuous (IQ rates, RT)
What are sampling rules?
Specify which individual is sampled
What are the types of sampling rules?
Ad libitum - informal watching of the research population, gain familiarity. Problem: tend to miss rate events of short duration and underestimate the contribution of smaller subjects
Focal sampling - a specific individual/unit is observed, problem: can be large bas if focal subject seeks privacy for behaviours
Scan sampling - number of individuals is sampled, in rapid succession, problem: rare events of short duration tend to be underestimated
Behaviour sampling - measure everything you see of an individual, overtime a behaviour occurs you measure it. bias: overestimating conspicuous events
What are recording rules?
Specify how the behaviour is recorded
What are the types of recording rules?
Time sampling - periodically samples behaviour: either instantaneous sampling (overtime an interval goes by, scan across and observe) and one-zero sampling (interval between time point which is important, give it a 1 if it occurs and 0 if not)
bias: can underestimate rare behaviours of short duration
continuous recording - record absolute frequencies and durations of behaviour, means fewer categories can be coded
bias: underestimate long-duration behaviours as these are more likely to occur at the end of recording session
