The Observer XT - Flexible Coding
The coding scheme determines what data you collect and is, thus, an essential part of your behavioral study. Setting up a coding scheme is not as straightforward as it may seem. It often requires quite some thinking to define the perfect coding scheme. The Observer XT supports the whole process of refining and re-arranging the coding scheme by allowing you to build your coding scheme during scoring. Also the possibilities to score subjects or comments only and to define (up to ten) hierarchical levels, make that you can arrange your coding scheme any way you like it. This flexibility is one of the key features of The Observer XT.
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The Observer XT - new video technology
The Observer XT supports playback of most commonly used video file formats, such as various MPEG and AVI formats, DivX and WMV. It is also possible to feed a live video signal into The Observer, through a FireWire or USB connection, and create up to 2 video files (DV-AVI or WMV) in The Observer while carrying out an observation. Depending on the power of your computer, you could create additional video files with an MPEG encoder that can be started/stopped from within The Observer. With our Screen Capture Module you can capture the screen of a test PC in a high-quality video file. This is a wellknown need of usability professionals.
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The Observer - Using Theme for data analysis
Theme™ is a software package for pattern detection in sequential data. It was originally developed for the analysis of social interactions. Theme uses raw data as input. Theme’s algorithms are based on relationships in the order and timing of behaviors. These relationships are critical in any goal directed action. Thus the time structures detected by Theme often reflect the purpose of behavior.
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Behavioral analysis in training and The Observer XT
In daily practice, it can be difficult to establish a longterm and permanent change in behavior. Most of the time, people are not aware of their behavior; according to a large number of scientists, at least 95% of our behavior is unconscious whereas only 5% is conscious.
This leaflet shows you how The Observer® XT can be used for behavior analysis in the training of a manager or sales person. The Observer XT facilitates the study of behavior, and provides you with accurate results which help to increase the awareness of behavior amongst managers, sales representatives, and other employees.
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| Behavioral analysis in training and The Observer XT.pdf | 111.15 KB |
Parent - Child Interaction and The Observer XT
Quality of parent-child interaction is one of the major predictors of emotional and social development of children in the first two years of life. Since the consequences of maladaptive parental responsiveness can be so profound, parent-child interaction is an important focus of child development research. This leaflet will show you how The Observer® XT facilitates the study of parent-child interaction.
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| Parent-Child Interaction and The Observer XT.pdf | 96.86 KB |
Facial Action Coding System and The Observer XT
With The Observer® XT it is possible to manage the whole FACS or parts of it, allowing comprehensive coding when needed. There are dozens of muscles in the face. These are represented in the FACS (version 2002) with 44 action units of facial muscles, and 14 action units of muscles in the head (of the eye and neck for instance). Since the activation of one action unit can coexist with as many as ten other units, the coding scheme can become very large: more than seven thousand combinations of action units have been identified [4]. Use The Observer XT to manage such a large coding scheme. Working with The Observer XT will save you valuable time and energy.
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| Facial Action Coding System and The Observer XT.pdf | 128.46 KB |
Eye tracking and The Observer XT
Eye tracking research provides valuable information for areas as diverse as Human Computer Interaction, usability testing, language processing, marketing research, ergonomics, psycho-linguistics, webpage design, and advertising. Using eye tracking in combination with The Observer® XT gives an extra dimension to your research.
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| Eyetracking and The Observer XT.pdf | 107.1 KB |
Consumer Behavior Research and The Observer XT
Why does a customer select your product? Who uses it, and how? What are their expectations regarding taste and structure? What do they think of the experience, and how do they dispose it? Understanding consumer behavior is essential to create successful products. Surveys generate valuable information, but they are susceptible to bias, for example because respondents can give socially desirable responses. To better predict your product potential, observation of consumers or members of a taste panel in specific situations is indispensable. This leaflet shows you how The Observer® XT facilitates the study of consumer behavior, and helps to increase the quality and efficiency of observational research.
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| Consumer Behavior Research and The Observer XT.pdf | 120.23 KB |
Ergonomics and The Observer XT
Ergonomics is the science of maximizing the comfort, efficiency, and safety of objects and environments for their users. You can think of the shaft of a hammer, the interface in a cockpit, and the shape of a computer mouse. Heating and lighting in a work environment, noise levels, repetitive actions, etc. are also important factors in the field of ergonomics. Health aspects must be taken into account. Efficiently using different data streams, combining all relevant factors can be easily accomplished by using The Observer® XT: the professional software tool for data collection, analysis, and presentation. With The Observer XT you can score behavior live and record video files simultaneously to log events at a later stage in more detail and at the speed of your choice.
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| Ergonomics and The Observer XT.pdf | 87 KB |
Human - Computer Interaction with uLog and The Observer XT
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research refers to the process of understanding and identifying the way people use computer technology and tools (for example software and websites). By mapping this interaction and applying the acquired knowledge, user experience can be studied. For that purpose, mouse and keyboard use can be recorded, as well as actions of the user. This can be accomplished by using The Observer® XT and uLog™.
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| Human Computer Interaction with uLog and The Observer XT.pdf | 134.42 KB |
How to use Theme in psychology research - autistic behavior
In what aspects exactly do children with a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD), like autism, contrast with their peer group? Are there, for instance, differences in the level of organization of their behavior? Willemsen-Swinkels and her colleagues of the University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands, addressed the latter question and compared the behavior of children with a PDD with that of normally developing children. The researchers videotaped 82 children (PDD and non-PDD) in a 40- min semi-structured playroom session after separation and reunion with one of their parents. The behavior of child and parent was coded from videotape by means of The Observer.
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| theme_psychology.pdf | 124.01 KB |
How to use Theme in sport research - Soccer analysis
Would the outcome of the World Soccer Championship 2002 have been different if the coaches had used T-pattern analysis to study performance? Andrew Borrie and his colleagues do not answer this question in their paper on T-pattern analysis in soccer matches. However, the investigators of the Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences in Liverpool did highlight the potential of this kind of analysis as a tool to support soccer coaches.
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Using The Observer to design usable forms for demographic surveys
Lorraine Ann Randall (Washington, DC, U.S.A). The U.S. Bureau of the Census collects general demographic and economic information, using censuses and surveys. These surveys are done either using paper or software forms.
Both types of forms have to meet high standards in terms of comprehensibility, accessibility and clearness. During an exploratory usability test, the test subjects are observed while completing a questionnaire. The Observer Video-Pro is used to record behavior on video and for the analysis afterwards.
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| pu_usab_randall.pdf | 126.21 KB |
How to keep train loading on track: Shell improves ergonomics with help of The Observer
Ilse Houting, Cees van Eijsden and Harrie Rensink (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Hose handling, opening and closing manholes, turning switches and coupling railway wagons by hand: this is all heavy work, and the physical load of the so-called 'movement operators' who do this job, is an important concern for their companies. The aim of this study was to draw up and justify possible plans to optimize their work situation and reduce their physical load.
The pysical load of the 'movement operators' was assessed by use of a Hierarchical Task Analysis (HTA). The methods for HTA are interviews with workers and management, and observation of actual operations. Observations were performed using both The Observer Mobile (with a Psion Workabout handheld computer) and The Observer Video-Pro.
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| pu_usab_houting.pdf | 298.31 KB |
Measuring behavior in virtual environments: Virtual Observer offers exciting new possibilities for ergonomics research training
Structured observation of human behavior is a widely accepted method to gather information about how people perform a task or interact with each other. However, a problem arises if one wishes to measure someone’s behavior under circumstances that are not available ‘live’ or cannot be reproduced in front of a video camera. In this review you can read how virtual reality and The Observer can be applied to overcome these problems.
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| pu_usab_greendino.pdf | 111.67 KB |
The Observer takes off: KLM chooses The Observer for process analysis.
As civil air is rapidly growing, most large airports are under constant reconstruction and expansion. In order to minimize waiting times before departure and between connecting flights, the ever-increasing stream of airplanes, passengers and luggage must be led into the right channels.
To this end the KLM Controllers Service Management Schiphol is constantly analyzing the processes related to the arrivals and departures of the aircraft, i.e. all the passenger-related activities. The Observer enabled the optimalization of allocating time and work force on each of these activities.
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| pu_usab_klm.pdf | 85.65 KB |
Software tools for objective measurement of usability
As information technology pervades society, and more and more people are spending a significant proportion of their working life in front of a computer screen, the usability of computer systems becomes ever more important. Although this is recognized by experts in the field, many well-known software products still suffer from limited usability with associated steep learning curves and high training costs. For the future, as users become more critical, low usability may become a major barrier to the success of new commercial software applications. This review describes how user acceptance of technological applications can be measured by a process called usability evaluation. This can be done most effectively in a usability labs which comprises of video and audio tools to record the interaction between a user and the system to be tested. One such tool, The Observer Video-Pro, has rapidly gained acceptance as a tool for usability research.
LineControl reduces waiting time in supermarkets: Labor analysts use The Observer to get a grip on work processes
Nowadays, managing a supermarket is very much like walking a tightrope. The consumer makes high demands and at the same time expects these to be met at a sharp price.
One of the problems in supermarkets is waiting in line at the checkout desk in a supermarket, which scores high on the list of inconveniences to many consumers.
This review describes a study of the operating processes of the store and the organization of the workforce in order to solve the problem of waiting time in supermarkets. Videotape recordings were made of all activities at the checkout desk. These tapes are analyzed with The Observer to establish average handling times and the time a customer spends at the desk.
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For your eyes only: Eye tracking offers new ways to analyze human behavior
Measuring where a person is looking provides important information about what triggers his interest. Therefore, a detailed understanding of how people mentally process the information presented to them, is essential for the design of efficient user interfaces.
To be able to analyze this process, one can use an eye tracking system such as the EyeCatcher. With the EyeCatcher, a video image of the person’s field of view can be obtained, containing a cross-hair cursor on the point in the image where his eyes are fixed (the point-of-gaze). The video signal can be recorded on tape to allow analysis at a later stage. By adding time code to the tape, it can readily be analyzed with The Observer. The person’s eye fixation can then be coded and timed, so that frequencies, duration and sequential structure of visual orientation can be assessed.
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| pu_usab_eyetracking.pdf | 113.53 KB |
Methods of monitoring pedestrian safety
Kevin Austin (London, United Kingdom).
Giving greater priority to pedestrians at signalized junctions, increasing the visibility of pedestrians to drivers and providing safer crossing points is expected to improve the safety of pedestrians.
The effect of these measures can be tested by comparing safety before and after implementation. Safety was operationalized by certain types of pedestrian behavior which are associated with a greater level of risk and hence accidents. Behavioral-based investigations with The Observer turned out to be an important short term way of monitoring safety.
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| pu_usab_austin.pdf | 95.44 KB |
Physical workload in ship maintenance: Using The Observer to solve ergonomics problems.
Berna van Wendel de Joode, Caroline Verspuy and Alex Burdorf (Rotterdam, The Netherlands).
Musculoskeletal disorders are an important cause of incapacity to work and lenghty absenteeism. These ailments can often be attributed to work-related physical load. An example of work involving significant physical load is ship maintenance.
An ergonomic workplace survey carried out with The Observer, was performed to answer the following questions: how does the physical load of workers relate to other jobs, how do various tasks contribute to the average physical load and how can the ergonomy of the workplace be improved in order to reduce physical load?
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| pu_usab_dejoode.pdf | 234.09 KB |
The impact of Intra- and Inter-Strain Cross-Fostering on Mouse Maternal Care
Rixt van der Veen [Leiden, The Netherlands]
The importance of maternal care in shaping an individual’s phenotype in health and disease is becoming more and more apparent in both human and animal studies. However, in mouse studies using inbred strains or knockout mice to analyze the genetic influences on the development of normal and aberrant behavioral phenotypes, maternal behavior is very poorly characterized and often ignored.
We performed an extensive analysis of spontaneous maternal behavior of inbred mice in several conditions. We compared two commonly used strains, the C57BL/6J (C57) and DBA/2J (DBA), in their behavior towards biological offspring and fostered offspring of the same strain (intra-strain cross-fostering). Moreover, we cross-fostered these pups to different strains of mothers with either high or low maternal care and analyzed the impact of this inter-strain cross-fostering. The Observer was used to measure maternal behavior in these three conditions. We report that the maternal behavior of C57 and DBA dams toward their biological offspring is highly similar and that intra-strain cross-fostering has minimal impact on maternal behavior of these dams. We also report that inter-strain cross-fostering does not modify the strain differences in maternal care observed between the foster mothers, but pup strain does influence the amount of maternal behavior shown by both mothers in inter-strain cross-fostering. These latter findings demonstrate that both mother strain and pup strain are key determinants of maternal behavior.
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Behavioral analysis of transgenic mice overexpressing corticotropin-releasing hormone
A. Dirks, L. Groenink, M. Verdouw, J. van der Gugten and B. Olivier (Utrecht, The Netherlands)
Exploration of the behavioral consequences of chronic CRH overproduction in mice of two established transgenic lines (CRH-OE2122 and CRH-OE2123) in behavioral paradigms reflecting different aspects of stress, anxiety and depression.
In this study, The Observer and EthoVision allowed easy recording and analysis of specific behaviors, resulting in an extensive description of the behavioral profile of the mutant mice overexpressing CRH.
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| pu_neuro_dirks.pdf | 88.27 KB |
Effects of neonatal DEX treatment on social behavior of the rat in later life
Dexamethasone (DEX) is widely used to prevent chronic lung disease in premature born infants. To investigate possible long-term adverse effects of neonatal DEX treatment, the consequences of a DEX treatment protocol in rat neonates on the social behavior of rats was studied. The Observer was used to measure social (play) behavior in juvenile rats, whereas EthoVision was used to assess social activity in adult rats. Neonatal DEX treatment resulted in enhanced social play behavior in juvenile rats. In contrast, social activity was not altered in adult DEX rats during the social interaction test.
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| pu_neuro_kamphuis.pdf | 98.15 KB |
Psychosocial stress in male tree shrews: an animal model for depression
To improve our knowledge of the causal mechanisms of stress-related disorders, and to bridge the gap between experimental models and the situation in humans, several experiments were conducted to assess the validity of the psychosocial stress paradigm in tree shrews as a model for depression. Since tree shrews are easily disturbed, move fast, and need to be individually housed (which hinders observing different animals at the same time), it is impossible to observe them in front of their cages. The Observer Video-Pro was succesfully used to overcome this problem. The psychosocial stress model in tree shrews proved to be useful for studying the effects of stress on behavioral symptoms and to investigate the effects of antidepressant treatment on these depressive-like symptoms.
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| pu_neuro_vankampen.pdf | 112.78 KB |
Quantification of seizure activity: The Observer supports research in epilepsy.
D. Jonker, M. Danhof and R.A. Voskuyl (Leiden, The Netherlands).
Seizures are defined as transient changes of behavior due to inappropriate, synchronous and rhythmic firing of central nervous system neurons. The literature provides detailed descriptions of the symptoms of seizures, but these observations are not quantified. Quantitative estimation is important for the measurement of the effects of anti-epileptic drugs.
In this report, The Observer was used to count the occurrence of seizure components in rats with different types of electrical induced seizures. In addition, the relation between drug concentration and suppression of these seizure components was estimated for several anti-epileptic drugs.
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| pu_neuro_jonker.pdf | 767.38 KB |
The BEFIE test: Using The Observer to validate a new medical instrument.
The Observer has been used to validate a newly developed test - the BEFIE test - to determine the width of the visual field of neurologically impaired children. Contrary to neurologically unimpaired children, these children may not be able to react with stimulus-directed behavior at a visual stimulus because they lack certain functions. To get round this problem, the BEFIE test ascertains eye movements to the detection of a visual stimulus. The angle at which the subject first detects the presence of the stimulus determines the size of the visual field.
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| pu_neuro_befietest.pdf | 98.23 KB |
Behavioral observation and psycho-physiology of communication between patients and physicians.
Arnstein Finset, Peter K. Graugaard, and Erik Holt (Oslo, Norway)At the University of Oslo, the Clinical Communication Research Laboratory has used several versions of The Observer over the years in a number of studies of clinical communication. Currently, they apply The Observer XT to study the psychophysiological aspects of clinical communication. During simulated medical consultations, blood pressure, heart rate, and electrodermal response on both doctor and patient were recorded. Results indicate that patients react with very responses to different doctor messages. Patients with alexithymia for instance were particularly sensitive to physician communication behavior.
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| cs_psycho_holt.pdf | 657.68 KB |
Hunting with dogs in the Nicaraguan rain forest.
Jeremy Koster (State College, USA)
Most indigenous Nicaraguan hunters in the Bosawas Biosphere Reserve in Nicaragua rely on their hunting dogs to locate and corral potential prey animals. To study interactions between the hunters and their dogs, The Observer 5.0 on a Psion Workabout handheld computer was used on expeditions into the forest. The result was a detailed dataset that far surpassed the quality of traditional paper and pencil methods. Preliminary results suggest that hunters with dogs often enjoy tremendous benefits but also incur substantial costs. Some dogs pursue animals that their owners consider inedible, and the hunters can lose valuable time chasing after a dog only to be disappointed by the result. While hunters can speculate about unseen prey based on the quality and intensity of their dogs’ barking, there is considerable uncertainty in these assessments. Despite such misadventures, however, dogs typically corral enough desirable game animals to offset the wasted time. Either in combination with firearms or with simpler hand technologies, dogs allow hunters to locate a wide variety of potential prey items.
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| pu_psycho_koster.pdf | 149.04 KB |
Studying repetitive behavior of autistic persons: An ethological approach.
Dina Joha, Gerard Nijhof and Hans Pekelharing (Baarn, The Netherlands).
Repetitive behavior is frequently displayed by those suffering various mental handicaps and is a commonly described symptom of autistic people. However, little is known about the patterns of repetitive behavior. This study aims to give an objective description of patterns of repetitive behavior of autistic individuals and to determine the functions of these different patterns in the behavioral repertoire of autistic individuals. The Observer was used for obtaining the patterns of repetitive behavior.
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| pu_psych_joha.pdf | 86.91 KB |
What brings about the alcohol consumption of young adults in peer groups?
Sander Bot and Rutger Engels (Nijmegen, The Netherlands).
Alcohol consumption of young adults takes mainly place in social settings. Often, in research on social influence and drinking behavior only questionnaires are used. However, to obtain insight in the process of social influence, it is valuable to observe the actual behavior.
In this study, The Observer Video-Pro 5.0 was used to record and analyze drinking episodes in existing peer groups of eight individuals. The process of ordering and consuming drinks was mapped, as well as the activities the participants were involved in. Combined with questionnaire data, it showed that there are some important differences between the peer influences on male and female drinking behavior.
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| cs_psych_bot.pdf | 316.79 KB |
Using The Observer to analyze aggression in African cichlid fish
Peter Dijkstra and Boye Gricar (Haren, The Netherlands)
Pundamilia pundamilia and Pundamilia nyererei are red and blue African cichlid fish respectively and are endemic Lake Victoria species. Male cichlid fish were brought from the Mwanza Gulf, Phyton, and Kissenda Island into the Zoological Laboratory in Haren, The Netherlands and were confronted with stimulus individuals of both colors, enclosed in transparent tubes. Ten minutes videos were analysed with The Observer. The following behavioral patterns were recorded: display behavior (i.e. frontal and lateral display) and attack behavior (i.e. biting and butting) at the walls of the tubes that contained the stimulus males.
Duration of display towards the red stimulus male and towards the blue stimulus male were calculated, as well as frequency of display, duration of attack, and frequency of attack.
The Observer appeared to be an excellent system to examine fish behaviors in both frequency and duration budgets. The Observer allowed for examination of many behavioral variables, which appeared to be very important to the research questions.
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| cs_zoo_dijkstra.pdf | 363.65 KB |
Aggression and feeding behavior of group-housed male pigs.
Greg Cronin (Werribee, Australia).
Finisher pigs, i.e. pigs from about 50 kg to slaughter weight, are housed in single-sex groups because the dietary requirements for optimal growth differ for the sexes. In addition, in many countries male pigs not required for breeding are surgically castrated.
Research in the 1970s showed that surgical castration reduced growth efficiency. Consequently, the Australian pig industry ceased castration of pigs about 25 years ago. However pig nutritionists have recently found the growth efficiency of group-housed entire male pigs, to decline during the last weeks of growth for older/heavier pigs. It was suspected that increased sexual behavior and aggression reduced feed intake and thus impairing growth in entire males. Recently, a new technology, immuno-castration, was developed which involves using a vaccine to chemically "castrate" male pigs in the latter stage of the finisher phase of production, thereby eliminating the need for surgical removal of the testes. Two alternative methods of castration were compared with the help of The Observer: traditional surgical castration and the new technology of immuno-castration.
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| pu_zoo_cronin.pdf | 141.86 KB |
How to measure locomotor activity in "lazy" chickens?
Dorothée Bizeray (Nouzilly, France).
The lack of physical exercise in meat-type chickens combined with the high growth rate has enormous effects on their development and causes poor skeletal quality. The high incidence of resulting leg problems causes commercial production losses and considerable animal welfare problems.
Some studies have shown that increasing locomotion in meat-type chickens can improve bone quality. In this study The Observer was used to find out whether chickens are genetically predisposed to low locomotor activity, because of the genetic selection for higher growth rate.
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| pu_zoo_bizeray.pdf | 322.27 KB |
Domestication effects on behavior in pigs and hens.
Maria Gustafsson (Skara, Sweden).
Domestication is the process by which animals that we keep in our farms today have been genetically changed from their ancestors. In this study the hypothesis that wild animals use a more costly behavioral strategy in comparison to domesticated animals is tested with The Observer. The premise of this hypothesis is that during domestication, humans provided animals with food and protection, which may have resulted in the gradual loss of behaviors needed in the wild situation.
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| pu_zoo_gustafsson.pdf | 104.39 KB |
How to watch behavior underground and in the dark: studies on a nocturnal subterranean beetle.
Anna Rasa (Bonn, Germany).
The behavior of most beetles is difficult to observe in detail. When it comes to a species like Parastizopus armaticepts, that is not only relatively small and active at night, but also performs most of its interesting behavior in a burrow, detailed behavioral observations in the field are impossible. In this article you can read about the development of a method of recording behavior on video-tape under semi-natural conditions in the laboratory, using The Observer.
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| pu_zoo_rasa.pdf | 81.66 KB |
Automatic event recording with AutoKey
Massoud Yasseri, Rainer Anscheit and Jakob Parzefall (Hamburg, Germany).
The Observer supports manual computer-aided recording of the behavior of animals. In many cases automatic event recording is helpful and advantageous compared to conventional direct observations. It is not only time-saving but it also prevents disturbing influences from the human observer. This report describes the development of AutoKey, a system for automatic event recording. The events detected by AutoKey can be directly recorded by The Observer. AutoKey allows remote operation of The Observer. This makes it possible to collect data from another room, or even from under water.
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| pu_zoo_yasseri.pdf | 87.4 KB |
Stress and emotion in animals
Paul Koene (Wageningen, The Netherlands).
Animals respond to input from their inner and outer environment with physiological and behavioral changes. They try to maintain a stable state by reacting to disturbances of the inner and outer world: Umwelt. Under natural conditions an animal can predict and control its Umwelt. However, in intensive housing systems this is more difficult. In trying to find solutions for the lack of control many animals develop "problem" behavior. In this report, several examples of studies into the causation and function of 'problem' behavior are presented. The Observer was used in a number of studies.
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| pu_zoo_koene.pdf | 82.24 KB |
Behavioral observation and psycho-physiology of communication between patients and physicians.
Arnstein Finset, Peter K. Graugaard, and Erik Holt (Oslo, Norway)
At the University of Oslo, the Clinical Communication Research Laboratory has used several versions of The Observer over the years in a number of studies of clinical communication. Currently, they apply The Observer XT to study the psychophysiological aspects of clinical communication. During simulated medical consultations, blood pressure, heart rate, and electrodermal response on both doctor and patient were recorded. Results indicate that patients react with very responses to different doctor messages. Patients with alexithymia for instance were particularly sensitive to physician communication behavior.
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| cs_psycho_holt.pdf | 657.68 KB |
The Observer in clinical practice: Observational analysis of arm function and gait.
Martijn Boekhoff, Jaap Harlaar and Karin Boeschoten (Amsterdam, The Netherlands).
In this study The Observer was used by occupational therapists to automate the observational assessment and reporting process of the abilities of arm functions of children using the EPEK test, a method for observing daily activities in children. In addition, The Observer was applied to examine children with cerebral palsy (validation of the Edinburgh GAIT scale).
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| pu_others_boekhoff.pdf | 152.54 KB |
Stress, emotion and cognition; role of mineralo- and glucocorticoid receptors
by Vera Brinks
Stress hormones such as corticosteroids are crucial for the link between emotion and cognition. The objective of this research is to identify the contribution of corticosteroids and their receptors to the integration of emotional and cognitive processes.
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| User_Report_Vera_Brinks_screen.pdf | 0 bytes |
Looking at learning in practice - Classroom observation with Noldus Observer XT
By Martijn van Schaik
In Dutch education and in education in general, there is an ongoing debate regarding how well new pedagogy and curricula work. The question is: “What works?” (Slavin, 2004).
That is not an easy question to answer. However, both policy makers and researchers are looking for forms of evidence that address at least part of that question. Often the answer is either qualitative or quantitative. In the research described below, I will show how using The Observer XT has allowed us to integrate different sources of data.
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| Case_study_Van_Schaik_observer.pdf | 113.96 KB |
Measuring behavior & physiology - An integrated system for video and radio-telemetric EEG
By Elena Moscardo and Chiara Rostello
The combined evaluation of physiology and behaviour allows for a complete and comprehensive preclinical assessment of central nervous system (CNS) functions.
An integrated video-telemetric electroencephalography (Video-tEEG) system was developed to enable simultaneous assessment of animal behaviour by video tracking technologies, and electroencephalographic analysis by radio-telemetry in freely moving rats.
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| Case Study - PhenoTyper - Moscardo - screen.pdf | 156.01 KB |
Children's food preferences: facial expression analysis with The Observer XT
Despite the health benefits, children consume less vegetables than recommended. Dutch children aged 4-6 years eat 44 grams of vegetables daily, whereas 100-150 grams is recommended [Dutch National Food Consumption Survey young children 2005/2006]. One of the main reasons for this low consumption, is that many children do not like vegetables. Since children’s liking or preferences play a crucial role in their food choice behaviour, it would be valuable to increase children’s liking for vegetables as an effective strategy to increase their vegetable consumption.
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| Children's food preferences - facial expression analysis with The Observer XT.pdf | 83.83 KB |
Physical therapy quantified with The Observer XT
Paediatric physical therapy is well known for its heterogeneity in application. This heterogeneity could be one of the reasons why randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on the effect of paediatric physical therapy often fail to demonstrate a beneficial effect of a new intervention. Researchers from the Institute of Developmental Neurology of the Beatrix Children’s Hospital of the University Medical Center Groningen recently developed an intervention program for infants at high risk for developmental disorders. They developed an observation protocol to quantify in a systematic way the contents of the physiotherapeutic sessions. The protocol turned out to meet the criteria for completeness, i.e. virtually all physiotherapeutical actions during infant treatment could be classified.
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| Case study - Opening the black box - Hadders-Algra.pdf | 104.88 KB |
Lasting reduced neurogenesis after social defeat in rats
Pieter van Bokhoven investigated whether a depression model of repeated social defeat and subsequent individual housing induces long-lasting changes in hippocampal neurogenesis in rats, and whether these can be normalized by late antidepressant treatment.
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| Case study - The Observer - Bokhoven - screen.pdf | 87.85 KB |
Juvenile social interactions - The role of peers and non-shared stressful experience
In this case study EthoVision and The Observer XT are used to study impact of maternal separation on juvenile social interactions.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| case study - Daskalakis - obs&ev - screen.pdf | 85.5 KB |