Using The Observer XT for animal research
Observing animals is a key part of many research areas, from neuroscience to wildlife and farm animal behavior studies. The Observer XT allows you to easily annote behavior and synchronize is with multiple datastreams.
Contact our sales teamScoring animal behaviors
With The Observer XT there is no more need for paper ethograms and manual entering of data. The Observer® XT supports the entire workflow of your project, from setting up to gathering and analyzing the observational data. You can extend your system with different modules, so the system grows with you as your research progresses.
The Observer XT helps you streamline your experiment by allowing you to easily score behaviors live or from a previous recording and immediatly export or analyze your results.
“I would buy The Observer software again. It saved me months of time!”
Dr. Elizabeth Eadie
UNIVERSITY OF New Mexcio, USA
What can I use The Observer XT for?
Neuroscience
Neuroscience research often relies on standardized tests, but certain studies require observing animal behavior outside of these parameters. The Observer XT is the perfect tool for categorizing such behaviors, streamlining your research process.
Farm animal welfare
Whether you are looking at feeding, social, stress or any other set of behaviors, The Observer XT makes your life a lot easier. The Observer XT can be used for the behavioral study of all animals from pigs, to chickens and cows.
Animal training
Observing an animal while it is trained can give great insight into the response of the animal to such training as well as the succes rate. With The Observer XT, you can easily log the behaviors during or after the training session.
Wildlife ecology
Measuring the behavior of wild animals is time consuming. With the Pocket Observer you can take your lab on the go and make collecting data more streamlined, saving you valuable time in the field.
Correlating behavior & physiological data
The Observer XT allows you to synchronize data streams to find patterns between physiological measurements and behavior. Think of heartrate, acoustics, or environmental data.
Insect behavioral research
Did you know? The Observer XT was orginally designed for logging insect behaviors. Eventhough it has grown from a simple programm to the platform it is today, The Observer XT is still perfectly suited for studying insect behavior.
How do I analyze my data?
Select the right data
You can build elaborate filters based on combinations of independent variables, behaviors, physiological data, and time criteria. Examples of independent variables are treatment, subject ID, observer, and any other important circumstances. All data in the project is available for analysis.
Visualize your data
The analysis of data often begins with visualizing the event log, one or more videos, audio, and physiological data streams. All data streams are displayed alongside and play in perfect sync. By visualizing the data streams, you can easily see and present what you have collected.
Explore your data
The Observer XT offers descriptive statistics of the coded behavior. You can calculate frequency and duration of behaviors, statistics for numerical modifiers or numerical external data. And you can perform a lag sequential analysis and a reliability analysis.
Work together on a project
A coder license is perfect for collaborative research projects. Multiple observers can simultaneously code and view behavior using The Observer XT coder license. Once coding is complete, the data can be merged into a main project with a full Observer XT license, allowing for data selection, analysis, and advanced visualization.
Pocket Observer
A lot of animal experiments with livestock or wild animals are conducted outside a lab. With Pocket Observer you can take your lab on the go, eliminating the need for paper and clipboards.
The advantages of The Observer XT
There are various advantages of using The Observer XT for animal behavioral research.
- Within The Observer XT you can calculate the reliability between different observers. You can calculate the Cohen's Kappa coëfficient to measure the inter-rater reliability.
- You can import physiological or other data into The Observer XT. This allows you to research patterns that are not easily found through manual means.
- With The Observer XT you don't have to code behaviors live. You can upload video files to The Observer XT and perform your observations any time you want.
