In addition, the book has educational exercises, walks users through output, and contains suggestions for how to quantify behavior. Sinauer Associates published the complete JWatcher manual: Q uantifying Behavior the JWatcher Way but this is now out of print (you can still find used copies). We have concentrated on developing new scoring and analysis algorithms, rather than duplicating functions in existing software. It produces simple output files that can readily be imported by such programs. JWatcher was designed to be used in association with common word processing, spreadsheet, and graphics software. Batch mode analyses allow efficient processing. Users may choose to exclude or ignore certain behaviors in analyses, and categories can be combined to generate behavioral codes that were not originally scored. The number of states that can be tracked simultaneously is limited only by the number of alphanumeric keys available. The logical relationships between behaviors can be edited in post-processing (i.e., a given behavioral state can be redefined as independent or as mutually exclusive with others). Each behavior can be analyzed both as an instantaneous event (measuring frequency) and as a state (measuring total duration). For instance, a single data file can be used to calculate time budgets over both short and long periods, or to track changes in different subsets of the behaviors seen. It is based on a “score once, analyze many times” philosophy that we have adopted in our studies of animal behavior. We developed JWatcher because existing event-recording programs typically force the user to make a restrictive series of decisions before beginning to observe behavior. Version 1.0 includes a number of additional algorithms that can be used to study sequences and study conditional behaviors (e.g., to study the frequency of or time allocated to walking while chewing gum), as well as algorithms to combine multiple results files and those to study inter- or intra-observer reliability. These calculate time budgets and provide statistics about the duration of behavioral states and the intervals between them. The real power of JWatcher is, however, in its analysis routines. It was designed primarily for focal sampling, in which a single subject is observed continuously. JWatcher can be used simply as an event recorder which logs the time at which keys are pressed. We have not developed a more modern tablet version. We also include the very outdated JWatcher-Palm, in case anyone still uses Palm OS devices.JWatcher Video only works on Windows XP systems we include it because if you can get it running, it has novel features.Version 1.0 works well on Macintosh, Windows and Linux operating systems.The legacy version (version 0.9) works on older systems (Macintosh OS-9 and Windows-98). We have a number of versions that we distribute at this site. It will run on almost any microcomputer capable of providing a Java Virtual Machine. JWatcher is written in Java and is hence not dependent on a particular operating system. It can be used to address any theoretical problem that requires a complex sequence of actions to be scored by a human observer. JWatcher is a powerful tool for the quantitative analysis of behavior.
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