Observational techniques
Reading: Altmann, J. 1974. Observational study of behavior: sampling methods.
Behaviour 48: 227-265
In this lab you will practice using several techniques commonly used to collect
behavioral data, which are described by Altmann (1974). Before the lab we will review
several observational techniques. You will then collect original data by recording
behavioral observations of an individual or group of animals. You will collect data using
four different techniques. Following data collection you will assess the advantages and
disadvantages of each technique.
Before beginning behavioral data collection you will need to spend some time
identifying the behavioral repertoire of your study animal. This will be a simplified
version of an ethogram. You do not need to prepare a complete ethogram, but you will
need to identify and assign names to the behaviors you will look at. Though you do not
need to write behavioral definitions for this lab, you do need to ensure that all group
members have a common working definition for each behavior. You may want to come
up with abbreviations for behaviors (e.g. feeding = fd). You will also need to determine if
the behaviors are states or events. For each sampling technique your list of behaviors to
be recorded must include at least one event and one state, though you will not necessarily
observe both.
For each set of behavioral observations you will need to record the sex and age
(e.g. adult female) of the focal animal. You will need to keep track of an individual (or
several) during your sampling interval (e.g. for 7 minutes for FAS).
Techniques for lab
1) Focal animal sampling (FAS)
- conduct an FAS on three individuals
- each FAS will be 7 minutes long
- record behaviors in 1 minute intervals
- sample one individual at a time
- record all behaviors exhibited by your focal animal
Example: Adult female B
0800 walk, feed, sniff ground
0801 sit, walk
0802 feed
0803 feed, walk
0804 groom, walk, yawn etc
2)All occurrence sampling
- define critical behaviors to be recorded before you begin (at least 5,
including at least one event and one state)
- sampling will be for 15 minutes (only on selected behaviors)
- give start time for each behavior (by minute is okay)
- you should collect data on about 5 individuals at a time –
- you may have multiple entries for a given minute in time
Example: Data collection from 0800 to 0815; watching individuals A, B, and C; critical
behaviors are “sing” and “alarm vocalization”
0801 C sing
0812 B sing
0812 A sing
0812 B sing
0813 A alarm vocalization
0814 C alarm vocalization
3) Scan sampling
-select 5 behaviors to record before beginning (at least one state and
one event)
- sampling will be for 10 minutes
- record behaviors at one minute intervals (but only at the sampling
time point, not the entire minute)
- you should collect data on about 5 individuals at a time
- behaviors should be recorded in a table (see below)
At the end of lab please turn inyour data. This should include a list of the behavior that
you were recording with any abbreviations you used as well as your ethogram. Be sure
that the data collected using each sampling technique is clearly labeled. Also, information
on each individuals sampled (in particular sex and age) should be clearly indicated. I will
be compiling the class’ data for analysis in next week’s lab.
Additionally, each student will turn in short written discussion (about 2 large paragraphs
or 4 small paragraphs) based on the lab exercise, about the advantages and disadvantages
of each observational technique. I will be looking for you to identify at least one
advantage and one disadvantage of each of the four techniques we used AND present
specific examples from this exercise to illustrate each point. Since I’ll be collecting your
behavioral data, you will want to make notes during lab to aid you in writing your
discussion.