ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Protocol page > The elements of a protocol > Reports > Track plots > Setting up a Track plot > Specifying the part(s) of a test to plot on a track plot

Specifying the part(s) of a test to plot on a track plot

In brief

By default a track plot will show the entire duration of a test, but you can alter this so just certain parts of the test are included. For example using the settings in figure 1 will cause just the first minute of the test to be shown.

Figure 1. Using these settings, the track plot will only show the track for the first minute of the test.

Details

You can specify what parts of the test should be included in a track plot based either on Time segments or Time periods.

As you may recall, Time segments (which are also known as time bins) chop a test up into equal length segments - you set the length in the Analysis across time element of the protocol. You can choose to show a track plot for any combination of Time segments. For example, in a 4 minute test you could select, 0-30s, 30-60s, 210-240s - in which case the track plot would show the track for the first minute and for the last 30s of the test. Clearly there'd be a gap in the middle of the track, but that's what you asked for!

Time periods are different to Time segments in that they define a specific arbitrary period of the test - for example, you could define a time period as being at 1 minute 5s and ending at 3 minutes 18s. Like for Time segments, you can include any combination of Time periods in a track plot, including Time periods which overlap.

One of the benefits of Time periods is that they can be based on something that happens in the test - for example, when the animal first enters a certain zone. In this case the Time period starts a certain time before the event (often 0s) and ends a certain time after it, perhaps 30s. So in one test the animal might enter the zone at time 20s, meaning the time period lasts from 20s to 50s, while in another test the animal might enter the zone at time 50s, meaning the time period lasts from 50s to 80s. The important point is that they both last the same time, and both refer to the same situation.

In relation to Track plots, what this means is that you could easily create a plot which shows just the 30s after the animal enters the zone, even though this period could be different in every test.

ANY-maze help topic T0684