| In the novel object recognition
task a mouse
can explore two objects (A and B) in a circular arena. With this Palm
application ("NOT.prc"; note that "NOT.prc" is still
in beta-test phase and therefore not yet publicly available)
data acquisition is made easy. |
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| Before you start the observation
enter the information needed for the experiment. To enter the setup
window, tap on the menu-bar and |
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then tap on
"Setup".
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In the setup window you set the
ID of the animal and select the type and the status (known/unknown)
of
objects A and B. When done tap on OK.
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After leaving the setup window
you see the ID of the animal (1) and the trial number (2). You can
start your experiment by tapping on Start (3).
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After the experiment has
started, you can tap on the objects whenever your focal mouse explores
the object. If the animal stops exploring one object, tap in the center
to stop counting the time spent with that object. Alternatively you can
use the hard buttons (calendar, up/down, notepad) for data collection
without having to look at the display of the handheld device.
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The number of explorations (1)
and the duration of exploring that object (2) are counted
automatically. The duration of the experiment is visible as a countdown
timer (3). You can either wait for the countdown or manually stop the
experiment by pressing "Stop".
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When the experiment ended, data
are saved in the following format: date (YYYYMMDD), time (HHMMSS), ID,
trial, object A type (e.g. 1 to 5), object A status (1=known,
2=unknown),
object B type, object B status, object A N (number of exploration
bouts), object A time, object B N,
object B time, total time. Data is stored in a Palm database
("NOTdata.pdb") that can be found after performing a HotSync in your
Palm backup directory.
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You can also export the
data as plain text (comma separated) to a Palm memo.
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Data can be read from the Palm
database using the NovelObjectTask Windows program:
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