#1 Video Converter v3.4.3 serial key or number

Behavior types¶

2 types of behaviors can be defined. Double-click on the cell and select the type of behavior:

• Point event behavior when the behavior has no duration.

  The behavior will be coded by pressing the defined keyboard key (see below) or by double-clicking to the corresponding row in the Ethogram table.

• State event behavior when the behavior has a duration.

  The behavior start and stop will be coded by pressing the defined keyboard key (see below) or by double-clicking to the corresponding row in the Ethogram table. These behaviors must have a start event and a stop event otherwise an UNPAIRED events warning will be reported when you will close the observation or during an analysis

You can switch between State event and Point event at your convenience with a double-click on the Behavior type cell. You can also add a Coding map to either a State event (State event with coding map) or a Point event (Point event with coding map; see the “Coding map” section for details).

An existing behavior can be duplicated using the Clone behavior button. Its code have then to be changed. On a selected behavior, click on the Remove behavior button to remove. The Remove all behaviors button will clear the Ethogram table. Both the above-mentioned operations must be confirmed when prompted.

Behavioral codes (Code column) can be sorted alphabetically by checking the Alphabetical order checkbox. Alternatively they can be sorted manually by using the Move up and Move down buttons.

Categories of behaviors¶

Defining categories of behaviors can be usefull for the analysis of coded events (for example the time budget analysis). Click the Behavioral categories button and add a the categories of behaviors. Behaviors can then be included or not in a defined category.

Set keys and codes¶

For each behavior you have to set a keyboard key (Key column) that will be then used to code the behavioral events. You can choose whether you want to set a unique key for each behavior or use the same key for more than one behavior. In the case you set the same key for more than a behavior, BORIS will pause your coding and ask which of the behavior you want to record. From version 7 the keys are case-sensitive.

If your project was created with a previous version of BORIS (< v.7) you can use the Convert keys to lower case to convert all keys to lower case otherwise you will have to code your observation using upper case key.

In the Code column, you have to add a unique code for each behavior. Duplicated codes are not accepted and BORIS will warn in red about duplicates on the bottom left of the Ethogram tab. The code can be an alphanumeric string (which must not include the pipe character | ).

The Category column allow you to include the behavior to a predefined category.

The Description of your behavior is optional. The Description column can be useful to add information about a specific behavior, its characteristics (e.g. to standardise observation between different users) or to refer to external information (e.g. reference to a previous ethogram).

The following three columns (Modifiers, Exclusion, Coding map) cannot be edited from the Ethogram table.

Set the modifiers¶

Modifiers can be used to add attributes to a behavior. A single behavior can have two or more modifiers attached (e.g. “play” may have “solitary” or “social” as modifiers). The use of modifiers can be convenient to significantly reduce the number of keys and simplify the behavioral coding.

4 types of modifiers are available: Single selection, Multiple selection, Numeric and Value from external data file:

• the Single selection type will allow the observer to select only one modifier for the current behavior.
• the Multiple selection type will allow the observer to select one or more modifiers for the current behavior.
• the Numeric type will allow the observer to input a number. For example a distance of interaction.
• the Value from external data file type will save the value of a variable from an external data file.

In BORIS modifiers can also be added in different modifier sets [e.g. “play, social” may have a modifier set (#1) for “brothers” and another (#2) for “sisters”]. In the case of using sets of modifiers, you can select one/more modifier for each set.

To add modifiers to a behavior, you need to double-click the Modifiers cell corresponding to the behavior you want to add the modifiers to. The following window will show up:

Click the Add a set of modifiers button:

Select the modifier type using the Modifier type combo box. You have to choose between Single selection, Multiple selectionNumeric and Value from external data file.

Single selection and Multiple selection modifiers¶

Set a name for the new modifiers set by typing it in the Set name edit box. Setting a modifiers’ set name is not mandatory.

Within a set of modifiers, you can add a modifier by writing the modifier in the Modifier edit box. You can choose a shortcut (one character - case sensitive) to this modifier (optional). Then press the right-arrow button to add the new modifiers to the set.

To modify a modifier, select it and press the left-arrow button, edit the modifier and press the right-arrow button.

A modifier can be removed by pressing the Remove modifier button.

After adding all modifiers the window will appear like this:

All defined subjects can be added as modifiers using the Add subjects as modifiers button. This can help in case of coding the interactions between subjects for example.

The modifiers can be loaded from a plain text file Use the Load modifiers from file button.

The modifier position into the modifiers’ set can be manually set using the Move modifier up and Move modifier down buttons. The modifiers can be sorted alphabetically (use the Sort modifiers button).

You can add and/or remove sets using the buttons Add set of modifiers and Remove set of modifiers.

The position of a modifiers’ set can be customized (using the Move set left and Move set right buttons)

Modifiers can not contain the following characters: (|),`~!

Example of a multiple selection modifiers set:

Many values can be selected together.

Example of 2 sets of modifiers:

Value from external data file modifier¶

This modifier can be used to record the value of a variable coming from an external data file (defined during the creation of the observation).

You have to define the variable name in the Variable name edit box. This is mandatory and the name of the variable must be the same than the variable defined in the observation.

See External data files

Click OK to save modifiers in the Ethogram table.

Set the exclusion matrix¶

The occurrence of an event (State or Point) can exclude the occurrence of a state event. This can be set using the Behaviors exclusion matrix window, which can be opened clicking on the Exclusion matrix button. BORIS will ask for including Point events or not and a new Exclusion matrix window will open.

Exclusive behavior may be selected by checking on the corresponding checkbox in the automatically-generated matrix. We suggest to work on the Exclusion matrix when all the behaviors have been added to your ethogram.

All behaviors can be excluded by a particular behavior by selecting the corresponding entire row (click on the row header of the behavior) and by clicking on the Check selected button. You can also uncheck all behaviors by selecting the Uncheck selected button.

Example of an exclusion matrix:

For example in the previous figure, the Alert behavior will exclude the following behaviors: Allogroom, Breed, Carry objects, Chase …

During the observation, the excluding event will stop all the current excluded state events one millisecond before the occurence of the event.

Important

If you open a project file created with a version older than v.7 BORIS will ask you to convert the upper case behavior and subject keys to lower case.

Scan sampling¶

In the above tab you can select a time for Scan sampling observation. In this case the timer will stop at every time offset you indicated and all the coded events will have the same time value.

Start from current time¶

If you want that the time starts from the current time you can check the Start from current time checkbox. The start time will be the computer current time when you will press the Start button.

Start the observation¶

Click the Start button to begin the live observation or Save to save it in the Observations list.

The main window during a live observation will look like this:

See the Live observations section to start coding.

Spectrogram visualization¶

BORIS allow you to visualize the sound spectrogram during the media observation. Activate the Visualize spectrogram check box. BORIS will ask you to generate the spectrograms for all media files loaded in the first player.

The spectrogram visualization will be synchonized to the media position during the observation.

Close current behavior between videos¶

This option is disabled for now.

External data files¶

You can select one or more external data files to be plotted synchronously with your media. Click the Data files tab and use the Add data file button to select a data file.

The data files must be plain text files with at least 2 columns separated by comma or TAB. One column must contain a timestamp that will be used to synchronize the plot with the media. The sampling rate can be variable.

Example of a plain text data file with 5 columns separated by comma (,):

In the above example the 4th column contains the timestamp and the 5th the value to be plotted.

Input the index of the column containing the timestamp and the index of the column containing the value to be plotted. The two indices must be separated by a comma (,). Click OK to close the window.

A new row will be added in the data files table.

You can modify/complete the following parameters by directly typing in the table cells:

• Columns to plot
• Plot title: the title of the plot
• Variable name
• Converters: Used if the timestamp is not expressed in seconds (see below for details)
• Time interval: The time interval that will be plotted (in seconds)
• Start position: the start position of data for synchronisation with the media (in seconds)
• Substract first value: if the timestamp does not start with a 0 value you can choose to substract the first value to all timestamp values.
• Color: the color of the color

NOTE : if you want to record the value of the plotted variable in a modifier of a behavior (see Value from external data file modifier) the modifier must have the same variable name.

You can check if the data from file can be correctly plotted by using the Show plot button. If the data are compatible you will see a plot otherwise you will obtain a message with an explanation.

For now only 2 values can be plotted synchronously with your media file. The values can come from the same file or from two different files.

During the observation tha values you have selected in external data files will be plotted synchronously with your media file.

Converters¶

If the values in the timestamp column are not expessed in seconds (like 12.45) but in another format (HH:MM:SS, MM:SS, ISO8601 2018-01-18T12:31:40Z …) you must use a converter that will convert the current format in seconds.

See the Converters’ tab in the project configuration: converters tab

A double-click on the converters cell will allow you to select a converter for each column to be plotted

Use the Show plot button to verify if your external data can be plotted without problem. The Close plot button will close the plot window.

Converters can also be used to convert values that are not time value.

Example of a converter for inverting value:

Start the observation¶

Click the Start button to start coding. The Observation window will be closed and you’ll be transferred to the main BORIS window. If you do not want to start the observation click the Save button. The observation will be saved in the observations list.

The main window during the observation of a single media file will look like this:

See the media coding section to start coding.

Media based observation¶

When the observation will start the media will be automatically positioned to the Start time value and the player will stop when the video time will reach the Stop time value.

Live observation¶

The observation will start at time 0 (or the current time if the Start from current time option is enabled). The Start time of the time interval will not be applied. The observation will stop when the Stop time will be reached.

Add event¶

This option allows adding a new event by specifying its time and the other parameters.

Edit selected event(s)¶

This option allows to edit the selected event(s). When many events are selected you have to choose the field to edit between Subject, Behavior and Comment. In this case the new value will apply to all selected events.

Edit time of selected event(s)¶

This option allows to add or subtract a time value (in seconds) to all selected events. For subtracting a value use a negative value.

Copy events¶

This option allows to copy the selected events in the clipboard. The clipboard will contain the values of the selected events (except the type field) separated by a <TAB> character.

Example of clipboard content:

Paste events¶

This option allows to paste the clipboard content into the events widget. The clipboard must respect the format described in the previous section: 5 columns separated by <TAB> character.

Find in events¶

This option allows to search for a string in the various field of events. Select the fields to be searched. The find/replace operation can be restricted to the selected events.

Find/Replace in events¶

This option allows to search for a string and replace it by a new value in the various field of events. Select the fields to be searched. The find operation can be restricted to the selected events.

Filter events¶

This option allows to filter the events by field value.

Show all events¶

This option reverts the previous one and allows to visualize all coded events

Check state events¶

This option allows to check if the state events are PAIRED, if they have a START and a STOP occurences.

Delete selected events¶

This option allows to delete the selected events. This operation is irreversible!

Delete all events¶

This option allows to delete all then events in the current observation. This operation is irreversible!