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Coding Behavior

Before starting to actually code behavior it is often necessary to set the time scale of the coding sheet to the actual point in the video where the experiment begins. This is important later for calculating percentages or latencies, especially if not using markers. The beginning of the coding sheet can be set to the beginning of the experiment, by navigating in the video to the experiment's start and then clicking on Sync \ Set Zero Point or by pressing Ctrl+Z.

Coding of behavior is simply done by clicking on the buttons representing the behavioral elements or by pressing the adequate hotkey. When pressing a button then that element is activated. This is indicated by the button being depressed and the button's caption appearing in the coding sheet's gray middle row. If the video is moved, the buttons caption will start to fill in the columns of the coding sheet. If the behavior ceases on the video then the button can be deactivated by either pressing it again or pressing an other button in the same category (if a new action starts at the same time). Only those buttons can be active at the same time which belong to a different category. If deactivating a previously active button then the entries displayed in the coding sheet will become permanent. It is possible to overwrite previous entries. In this case the superposed entries will be displayed in red until made permanent.

If activated during workspace config mode then comments can be used in the same way as ordinary behavioral elements.

Behavior can be coded with the video playing or being paused. A good method is to let the video play until a change is detected in the behavior(s) of interest, then pausing it with the space bar, stepping back a few steps with the arrow keys or the mouse wheel, and activating / deactivating the appropriate elements with the buttons / hotkeys.