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Analysis across time

Introduction

In many experiments, you are likely to want to look at not only the results for the entire duration of the tests, but also at the results for different parts of the tests - for example, the first minute, the second minute, and so on.

In ANY-maze, there are two ways to perform this type of Analysis across time. You can either divide tests into equal length segments, or you can create time periods covering any arbitrary part of the test. Whichever method you use, you can then view, plot and analyse results between the segments or periods.

Using equal length test segments to perform analysis across time

Performing analysis across time using time segments is the quickest and simplest method, as you just have to specify the duration of the segments and ANY-maze does everything else.

Specifying the duration of time segments

The length of time segments is set in the Analysis across time element of the protocol.

The default segment duration is 30 seconds, but you can change it to any value from 1 second to 24 hours. You can enter the duration using the units s, min, and h for seconds, minutes, and hours respectively. You can also use decimals, so for example '1.5min', '1min 30s' and '90s' are all the same duration.

You can alter this value at any time, including after an experiment is complete, and ANY-maze will simply re-analyse your results automatically, which usually only takes a few moments.

Viewing results across time

The key to working with results that are being analysed across time is the Segment of test measure. This measure represents the different time segments that the test has been broken into, so when the segment duration is 30 seconds, this measure has values of '0-30 seconds', '30-60 seconds' and so on.

You can use this measure as a grouping measure for text reports, as the x axis value in graph reports, or as an independent variable for statistical analysis. Taking a graph report as an example, this would generate a graph showing time on the x axis and the value of some dependent variable on the y-axis - as is shown in figure 1, below.

Figure 1. Example of the distance travelled plotted across time using a 10 second time segment duration.

You can also use this measure to show results for tests segments on the Data page - in this case, you simply need to include the measure as one of the columns on the report.

Finally, you can also use the Segment of test measure as a Limit both in a Results report and on the Data page, such that only a certain segment (or segments) are included in the report. For example, you might want to perform some analysis of the first minute of a 10 minute test, so you would simply limit the report to only include the segments '0-30 seconds' and '30-60 seconds' (assuming your segment duration was 30 seconds).

Creating time periods for analysis across time

Using time segments, as described above, is a very easy way to analyse results across time, but it has one problem - the test is always divided into consecutive, equal duration segments. While this is suitable for lots of experiments, there are times when you need to have more control and in those cases, you can create Time periods.

As the name implies, a Time period is just a period of your test, for example '30-90 seconds', but the difference to a time segment is that this period can cover any arbitrary part of your test. For example, imagine you have a test in which you want to compare the results for the periods 30-90 seconds and 200-260 seconds - using time segments this would not be possible, but using Time periods you would simply create one period for 30-90 seconds, and a second one for 200-260 seconds and then perform your analysis using the Time period measure as an independent variable (this measure is analogous to the Segment of test measure described in the previous section).

For further details about setting up time periods, refer to these topics:

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ANY-maze help topic T0641