Arbitrary time unit counts as a mean to evaluate animal activities.
The quantitative assessment of the temporal distribution of animal activities (locomotion, feeding and drinking), which is of interest for behavioral studies, can be effected in several ways when observations last for long periods of time. One fairly widely used method is based on the scoring of segments of varying length of continuous ink on paper records (arbitrary activity counts), although, as far as we know, no proof has been given of the validity of this method. The relationship between the data obtained from the scoring process (arbitrary activity counts) and the absolute numerical data obtained from readings of activity counters has been tested by means of statistical analysis. The results show that there is an excellent fit between the two sets of data, thus proving the reliability of this method of assessing animal activities.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D001525:Behavioral Sciences / Q000379:methods*; D004326:Drinking; D004435:Eating; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013997:Time Factors