ANY-maze Help > I/O devices supported by ANY-maze > The ANY-maze Operant interfaces > A tutorial on the ANY-maze Operant interface > Operant interface tutorial : Running a test

Operant interface tutorial : Running a test

Introduction

We've now entered details of the animals in our experiment, so we're ready to run a test.

Switch to the Tests page by clicking on the Tests tab above the ribbon bar.

The left side of the Tests page will show the Test schedule report. This report will show you a list of the tests that you are going to perform in your experiment - see figure 1.

Figure 1. The Test schedule report lists all the tests in an experiment. Here the next test to perform will be a test on Animal 1, and the system is ready to start the test.

On the right-hand side of the page, you will see the Test window with with a status that says 'Animal 1 - Ready...' - this means you are ready to perform the test.

However, you might find that instead of a status of 'Ready...', you may see something else, for example 'Not connected to DC power', in which case you should resolve whatever the problem is (in this case, make sure that the ANY-maze Operant interface is connected to its power supply). When you do this, the status will automatically change to 'Ready...'.

Once the test is 'Ready...', put the animal into its cage (if it's not already in there) and then either press the red button on the top of the ANY-maze Operant interface, or click the

button shown just above the status on the screen.

The test clock will start to run, and the I/O Status panel will show the status of all the I/O as in figure 2, below.

Figure 2. During a test, ANY-maze will show the status of the various I/O components attached to your ANY-maze Operant interface.

There's nothing for you to do while a test is running - which makes it very easy to run multiple tests simultaneously, as you could move on to another cage and start a test there.

When the test duration expires, the test will end automatically and ANY-maze will get ready for the next test - and you'll see this in the Test schedule report.

You can stop your experiment at any point (except when a test is actually running) and close the experiment file; when you reopen the experiment, testing will just pick up from where you left off.

Viewing the test results

After performing a test, you can view its results using the Test schedule report shown on the left side of the Tests page.

Click on the 'Test number' of the test whose result you want to view - as in figure 3.

Figure 3. The test numbers on the Test schedule report are links; clicking one will take you to the Test details report.

The Test details report will open. This report includes various sections, but what interests us are the Results - see figure 4.

Figure 4. The Test details report includes results of the test.

As can be seen in figure 4, various results are shown, including such things as the number of activations of the lever and shocker, and the latency to first lever activation. Here, there's also a measure called 'Achievement', which is the result of a Calculation - where ANY-maze can calculate its own results based on other measures.

In fact many other results are also available, and you can tailor this list by clicking the link shown just above the result values. Any changes you make become part of the protocol, so they'll apply to all the tests in the experiment and, if you save the protocol, to all experiments that use the protocol.

What next?

In this topic, we learnt how to perform tests in an Operant cage and we also looked at the results of an individual test. However, ANY-maze can do much more than just show you the results of each test individually, and this is what we'll explore in the final section of this tutorial - Analysing the experiment's results.

Operant interface tutorial : Running a test

Introduction

Viewing the test results

What next?

See also: