Abstract
OBSERVE is a preliminary release of a multimedia course for teaching undergraduate and graduate students how and why to study behavior by direct observation. The instructional text and commentary and the self-test and examination materials are built around a series of exercises in which the student observes and categorizes film clips of the behavior of several different species in several different ways. Incorporation of elements from The Observer software for computer recording and video analysis implements fully computerized continuous recording. At present, the text, together with check sheets that the program generates, enables a comparison between one-zero, instantaneous, and continuous sampling of the same behavioral excerpts. Matrices are printed out for an exercise in calculating interobserver reliability. Another section supports carrying out and writing up a small observational project on human behavior in the field. Plans for the future development of OBSERVE are briefly described.
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OBSERVE was created as Socrates Project 25230-CP-2-97-1-GBODL-ODL of the European Commission, which gave financial support to the development of the multimedia course as a vehicle for open and distance learning. The authors thank Arthur Wammes (multimedia programmer), all our participating colleagues at Noldus Information Technology, the staff of the Television Service at the University of Liverpool, especially Susan Wilson-Mackell (graphic artist), Kevin Jones and Steve Bellis (camera), and Rebecca Woodnutt (video editor), and the staff and, particularly, the students at the universities of Liverpool, Barcelona, and Iceland, for giving us feedback on how to improve the course. The video film material was shot on multiple cameras by the team in the Television Service of the University of Liverpool under the direction of C.M.N., recorded on Betacam S.P. analogue tape, and edited in digital format on an Avid machine. On-location filming was done, for kittiwake gulls, on Lundy, a small island in the Bristol Channel, U.K.; for macaque monkeys and chimpanzees, at Chester Zoo; for nursery school children, at two day nurseries in Liverpool; and for people arriving at an airport, in the International Arrivals terminal at Manchester airport. An examination copy of the preliminary version of OBSERVE on CD can be obtained from Noldus Information Technology b.v., Costerweg 5, P. O. Box 268, 6700 AG Wageningen, The Netherlands (e-mail: marketing@ noldus.nl), who will be happy to answer any technical questions.
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Dickins, D.W., Aurelia, M., Magnusson, M.S. et al. Observe: A multimedia course on the observational analysis of behavior. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers 32, 263–268 (2000). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207793
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03207793