L1 - Investigating, observing and measuring behaviour

Question 1

what are some things we need to consider before going out and doing research

Answer 1

timing and location of observation
effect of observer on organism
ethical considerations
biases within the observer
experimental design

Question 2

what are the 3 Rs under ethical consideration for the Use of Animals

Answer 2

replacement, reduction and refinement

Question 3

what are some biases/problems with observers that may occur

Answer 3

definitions, inexperience, frequency of occurence, fatigue

Question 4

what are the 3 main types of IOR metrics

Answer 4

*Index of Concordance (2 observers, nominal data, proportion of agreement)
*kendalls coefficient of concordance ( 2+ observers, ordinal or ranked data)
*intra-class correlation coefficient (2+ observers, continous/count data

Question 5

what is anthromorphy and teleology

Answer 5

antrhopomorphy - ascribing human emotions and abilities to animals
teleology - describing behaviour as purposive,, goal intended and intentional

Question 6

what is an ethogram

Answer 6

catalogue of typical behaviours fro the repertoire of the species, behaviours assigned specific and objective definitions, should be mutually exclusive and grouped into categories of types of behaviour

Question 7

what is a stereotypic behaviour

Answer 7

occurs in captivity, reperitive and “irrational”, may be caused by stress

Question 8

what are 2 ways through which behaviour can be recorded

Answer 8

state - record duration
event - record frequency or rate

Question 9

what are other aspects that should be recorded when observing a behaviour

Answer 9

participants (number), transitions, spatial info, contextual data

Question 10

what are the 4 sampling rules

Answer 10

*ad libitum - non-systematic, biased, picks up rare behaviour
* focal sampling - one individual for the whole sampling period, what if out of sight?
* scan sampling - rapid census of whole group, instantaneous
* behavioural sampling - focusing on rare behaviours which would otherwise be missed

Question 11

what are 2 recording rules

Answer 11

*continous recording - records each occurrence and duration of the behaviour, accurate reflection of latency, frequency and duration
* timed instantaneous - samples at pre determined sample points, quantifies proportion of sample points spent performing behaviour