Contents
EthoLog 1.0 - Ethological transcription tool

EthoLog is a tool for the transcription or real-time registering of behavioral observation sessions.

You will need a previously prepared text file (.ctg) containing the ethogram for your observations. EthoLog generates two text files (.rep and .log) with the resulting sequential and timing data.

EthoLog runs on Windows 3.1 or a higher version. It was created with Visual Basic 3.0 Professional Version (so be sure you have the file vbrun300.dll available in your system).

Basic Concepts

General Procedure

Creating a .ctg File

Main Screen Fields and Buttons

The .rep and .log Files

Utilization Tips

The present version of EthoLog 1.0 is freeware: you may use it and distribute it freely, as long as you do not change it in any way, and granted that any publication reporting research done with the aid of EthoLog mentions it properly. Any comments and bug reports should be sent to the author`s e-mail address (ebottoni@usp.br). This program is provided without any warranty, either expressed or implied etc (default disclaimers here).

© 1995  Eduardo B. Ottoni

Dept. of Experimental Psychology

University of Sao Paulo - Brazil


Basic Concepts

Once you have started an EthoLog session (see elsewhere how to reach this point), there are three basic things you can do (besides, of course, Closing or Pausing/Resuming the session): you can register  the occurrence of State Events (SEs) or Instant Events (IEs), and you can append a Label to the last-entered event (SE or IE).

Any behavioral category can be used as a SE or an IE (or both). Just type the key code to enter it as an Instant Event; press the Space Bar before it to register the beginning of a SE (and the end of the previous one).

Right after you press the Start button, the only available option is entering a SE, which starts the timer (and the session). So the first key pressed in a session must be the Space Bar, introducing the initial State

State Events (SEs) have a duration; There is always a SE going on: A SE finishes when the next SE is entered; the time is registered when the Space Bar is pressed, and the Ongoing State field will show a `?` until you enter the category. Pressing the Space Bar again instead of a key code cancels the previous press and the last entered State goes on).

Instant Events (IEs) do not have durations (as SEs do), but times of occurrence. Just type the category key code. An Instant Event occurs always inside an ongoing State Event.

Labels are notes (which can be used also as modifiers or indexes) that can be appended to the last entered event (SE or IE); press ENTER, type it, and press ENTER again; if you exceed the limit of 7 characters (i.e., when you press the 8th character), you will be automatically out of the label entering mode without the last ENTER keypress (the sign LABEL will go off by itself and you will be back to normal mode).


General Procedure

1) First create the text file xxx.ctg (where xxx stands for the name you want to give it) containing the ethogram (i. e., the list of behavioral categories, names up to 5 characters) and the key codes for the categories (one key for each category).

2) When you start EthoLog, open the menu option File and choose the item Load categories table; it will open the Load dialog box, where you should indicate the appropriate .ctg file; the Key Code window will be opened, showing the list with the categories and their key codes.

3) The program will then ask you to name your .log and .rep files (the default option is etho). Be careful here: you will have no later option for changing these names and older files with the same name will be overwritten if you continue (cancel the operation and restart the program loading again the .ctg file). At this moment, you can also change the directory where these files will be saved to (the default being the predefined EthoLog`s working directory*), entering not only the files` name but the complete path (for instance, enter c:\user\data\test -- instead of test -- to save test.log and test.rep to the c:\user\data directory).

4) After this, the program is ready to start the transcription session when you push the Start button, but the time will only start running in the moment you press the Space Bar to enter your first State Event. State Events are preceded by a Space Bar press, while an Instant Event is not (just type the key code and the IE is registered along with its time of occurrence and the ongoing SE); any category can, thus, be used as a State or Instant Event (or both).

5) A State Event is ended when you enter another SE. Unless you have checked the State Repetition option, the program will not accept two equal consecutive SEs (enter another category key code or resume the previous State by pressing the Space Bar once again).

6) If you press ENTER during a session, you can add a Label to the last category (IE or SE) entered (finish it pressing ENTER once again).

7) The transcription can be interrupted by pressing the Pause button (which will then become the Resume button; you can resume your session by pushing it again).

8) The session will be finished when you push the Stop button; after the session is closed, two tables are exhibited, with an overview of the overall occurrence of SEs and IEs (not the complete data in the .log and .rep files). Press ENTER to continue after each of the Summary Tables. The .rep and .log files are saved and you can either restart the program to transcribe another session (with another name!) or leave EthoLog .

9) The resulting .rep and .log files are plain text files which can be read with any text editor or imported by a spreadsheet program for further analyses. Check your spreadsheet Help on how to automatically build the rows and columns when loading these files

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NOTES:

* To alter the Working Directory defined for a Windows program, highlight its icon in the Program Manager window, then open the dropping menu File (alt-F), go to the Properties option and edit the Working Directory field.


Creating a .ctg File

A .CTG file is a text file with your ethogram, listing the behavioral categories and their key codes; the first line must contain the number of categories; the next lines list the key codes (one character each) and categories names (up to 5 characters), separated by commas and without spaces. You can write it with Windows Notepad or any other text editor. This version supports .ctg files up to 60 categories.

Example:

5

B,BARK

E,EAT

R,RUN

S,SLEEP

W,WALK

Save it with any name you want, but remember to give it a .ctg suffix instead of .txt (or EthoLog will not recognize it as a valid categories table).

EthoLog will filter keyboard input according to the key codes list in the loaded .ctg file, so that only the listed keys are active. Non-listed characters typed will be registered in the Keyboard Input field, but the program will otherwise ignore them - unless, of course, you are entering a label.

Since State and Instant Events are distinguished by the previous Space Bar press (States), any category in the .ctg file list can be used as a State or as an Instant Event (or both...).

Try the sample file example.ctg (26 categories); notice that you should use Caps Lock, since all key codes in this example are capitals.


Main Screen

BUTTONS:

START - opens a transcription session* (CTRL-S) [after a categories table has been chosen];

* time starts running only after you press the Space Bar to enter the 1st State Event

PAUSE/ RESUME - interrupts and resumes a transcription session(CTRL-P, CTRL-R).

STOP - ends a session (CTRL-T).

FIELDS:

KEYBOARD INPUT - shows every keyboard entry (and also indicates when the program is in the Label input mode.

SESSION LOG - shows the main events in your transcription session (NOTE: a SE is only shown in this field when it is finished).

ONGOING STATE - shows the active State category; a `?` indicates it is waiting for a State Event code (i.e., you pressed the Space Bar press but did not enter the category key code); press the Space Bar again to cancel the SE-category-entering mode (the  `?` will go off) and resume the previous SE (time counts are not affected by such failed or aborted input operations).

COLOR DISPLAY:

red: no session running;

yellow: session ready to start/ to be resumed after a pause.

green: timer is running;

CHECKBOX:

STATE REPETITION - when checked, allows for two (or more) equal State Events in sequence. The default mode is unchecked (this can only be changed after loading the categories table and before pressing the Start button).


.REP and .LOG Files

These files contain the complete data of the transcription session; since they are plain text files, they can be read by any text editor or imported by a spreadsheet for further analyses. They show the sequence of events and their duration (State Events, SEs) or times of occurrence (Instant Events, IEs), total SEs` durations and state of occurrence of IEs, and also the labels. for any SE or IE.

There is a table of occurrence for the behavioral categories in the .REP file, with six columns showing:

1) #	category number code (1 to N, the number of categories);

2)CAT	names of the categories;

3) DUR(s)	total duration of occurrences*, in seconds;

4) Nstate	number of occurrences as State Events;

5) MEAN D(s)	mean duration (total duration/number), in seconds;

6) Ni.evs	number of occurrences as Instant Events.

This file also shows (top) the session/file name, the total duration of the session (hh:mm:ss), and the total number of SEs and of IEs.

* as SEs, since IEs have no durations.

The .LOG file contains the session name and two lists, showing:

1) the sequence in time (#) of State Events (SEs) and Instant Events (IEs);

2) the behavioral categories` names ( Cat. / Event Cat.) and

3) categories` numbers codes (Code / Code(IE); position in the .ctg file list);

4) durations (SEs:Dur.(s), secs.) or times of occurrence (IEs:Time(s), secs.);

5) the labels (Label) eventually assigned to Events (SEs/ IEs).

For the IEs, there are two more columns, indicating:

6) the SEs in which they are embedded (State Cat.), and

7) the corresponding category numbers (Code(S))*.

* category number codes can be useful for spreadsheet analyses.


Utilization Tips

EthoLog, in the present version, is more suited to focal subject observations; in these cases,  labels applied to State Events or Instant Events can be used to specify the other individuals interacting with the focal (in case of social categories) or as any kind of modifier you need (within the limit of 7 characters...).

The behaviors of a few interacting individuals could be transcribed for all subjects treated as focals, one at a time. The individual .rep and .log files can be brought together in an integrated spreadsheet file for further analyses.

There is no screen clock in the EthoLog form, but you can put the Windows Clock in a suitable place (and size) in you desktop and use it.

The creative use of labels can greatly enhance the possibilities of this version of EthoLog. Example: after entering the code for an observed social behavior category (as a State Event or an Instant Event) you can indicate in the label field the codes of the subjects involved in an interaction, plus direction indicators...

Improvements toward multiple-subject interactions and scan-sampling techniques -- as well as an automated Stop option for sessions with a pre-defined duration -- are expected for the next version of EthoLog.

NOTE ON THE TIMER: EthoLog does NOT use the standard Visual Basic timer, since it is not accurate at the level of hundreths of a second and (even worse) is affected by other events occurring in the Windows environment. Instead, EthoLog uses the TIMERINFO routine in TOOLHELP.DLL, which avoids these problems.


State Events
State Events (SEs) have a duration; Command: [Space], [key code]. The starting time is registered when the Space Bar is pressed, and the Ongoing State field will show a `?` until you enter the category key code. Pressing Space again instead of a key code cancels the previous press and the last entered SE goes on).There is always a SE going on; a SE finishes when the next SE is entered. The first key pressed in a session must be the Space Bar, introducing the initial SE and turning the timer on.


Instant Events
Instant Events (IEs) do not have durations (as State Events do), but times of occurrence. Command: [key code] (just enter the category). An IE occurs always inside an ongoing SE (any category can be used as an IE, SE or both).


Labels
Labels are notes or modifiers or indexes that can be appended to the last entered event (State or Instant Event). Command: [ENTER], [label], [ENTER] (press Enter, type it, and press Enter again); If you exceed the limit of 7 characters (i.e., when you press the 8th character), you will be automatically out of the label entering mode without the last Enter keypress (the LABEL sign will go off and you will be back to normal mode).


Key Codes
Key Codes are the characters in the keyboard assigned to the behavioral categories in the .ctg file. A Key Code is composed of only one character -- which can be any letter (capitals included), symbol or digit. A Key Code preceded by a Space Bar press is registered as a State Event change; else, the category occurrence is considered an Instant Event.


Summary Tables
Summary Tables (State Events / Instant Events) are exhibited after you close a session; they contain just some general data, a brief overview of the session main features. The .rep and .log files generated contain the complete sequences of events with all info you will need for further analyses.