The options available

Having looked at the various forms of behavioural measure, we now move on to consider the mechanical processes involved in recording them. The choice of the medium, or physical means, used to record behavioural observations has important consequences for the sorts of data that can be collected and the sampling techniques that can be used. Five basic methods of recording behaviour are available: film or video recording; written or dictated verbal descriptions; automatic recording devices; check sheets; and computer event recorders. The most flexible and commonly used methods are check sheets and computer event recorders (described separately in sections 7.B and 7.C). Using check sheets, an event recorder or any other method obviously presupposes that the observer has formulated a set of discrete behavioural categories.

1 Film or video recordings give an exact visual record of the behaviour which can subsequently be slowed down for analysis. This is useful for studying behaviour that is too fast or too complex to analyse in real time. Similarly, exact records of vocalisations can be made with an audio tape-recorder and the sound patterns analysed later using instruments such as a sound spectrogram.

The major advantage of recording behaviour in this way is that the record can be analysed repeatedly and in different ways. However, filming or videotaping is rarely a complete replacement for observation. At some stage it is always necessary to code the behaviour – that is, to transcribe the record into quantitative measurements relating to specific behavioural categories.