Drink

Definition

A discrete (state event) variable that estimates the time that a subject spent drinking.

Drink has two components:

▪In the water zone: This marks the time that the focal subject is within a circular zone that includes the water source.

▪Drink: The subject is within a smaller circular zone around the water source with a radius being half the radius as above. In addition, the subject is stopped for more than 2 seconds. Therefore, Drink is a more restrictive criterion to estimate the amount of time that the subject spent drinking.

Calculation

Drink is essentially a variable like In zone, because it calculates the time that the subject’s center point lies within a zone. In this case the zone is a circle that covers the water tank placed at the bottom-right corner of the apparatus.

▪If the distance between the subject’s center point and the center of the circle is less than the zone radius, then In the water zone is scored for that sample.

▪A smaller zone concentric to the first zone is also considered. If the distance between the subject’s center point and the center of the smaller zone is shorter than the zone radius, and if the subject is stopped (see Stop), then Drink is scored for that sample.

How to specify Drink

1.Open an Analysis profile and in the Dependent Variables panel, under Live Mouse Tracker, click the Add button next to Drink.

2.Under Calculate Statistics for, select In the water zone, Drink or both.

3.Complete the procedure to add the variable to the Analysis profile. See Calculate statistics: procedure