ANY-maze Help > The ANY-maze reference > The Tests page > Running tests > Before starting a test > Setting the positions of movable zones before a test

Setting the positions of movable zones before a test

Introduction

If an experiment's protocol includes some movable zones (i.e. zones whose positions can be different in different tests) then you may find that you need to specify the position of the zone(s) before you start each test. However, this will only be the case if the protocol specifies that the zone's positions can vary within the animals (i.e. the position won't necessarily be the same for all the tests for a particular animal) and the protocol doesn't explicitly specify what the positions of the zone should be in each trial.

For moveable zones whose positions vary between, but not within, an animal, the simplest place to set the zones' positions is on the Animals spreadsheet.

Details

Specifying the position of a zone

ANY-maze will automatically ask you to specify the position of any movable zones which can vary within an animals' tests and which don't have their positions defined in the protocol. It will do this before the start of every test. Specifically, the apparatus will show a status message of the form : Animal 1, Training stage trial 1: Please click on the xxx's position

In the apparatus image the possible positions which the relevant zone can adopt will be shaded in purple and you simply need to click on whichever position the zone is in for this test - when you click a position it will change to be shaded in blue. You can change the position you've selected by simply clicking a different one.

Once you've specified the position of the zone you should click the button. If the protocol includes another zone whose position needs to be specified then you'll be asked to specify its position, otherwise the test will be set to the 'Ready' state and you can start it in the normal way.

ANY-maze remembers the positions of movable zones between tests

ANY-maze will remember the position of all movable zones from one test to the next. This means that when you start the next test the position of any movable zone will already be shown where it was in the previous test, if it's not changed then you don't need to do anything.

Starting tests directly

You don't actually need to use the button to get to the 'Ready' state in order to start testing as ANY-maze will still respond to clicks on the Start test button when the status is asking you to specify the position of movable zones. This is useful when the position of a movable zone hasn't changed (see previous item) as it means that you can start the test immediately, without having to click the button first.

It's not strictly necessary to specify the position of movable zones before performing a test

In fact, you don't have to specify the position of any zones before you perform a test - you can always set them afterwards using the Test details report - however there is one very important point to consider: If a movable zone is used by any procedures and its position hasn't been specified, then the procedure probably won't work in the way you expect. For example, if the island zone in a water-maze is movable and you've created a procedure to detect when the animal enters the zone and to then end the test - if the island's position isn't specified, clearly the procedure will never end the test. For this reason it's usually best to specify the positions before running the tests.

ANY-maze help topic T0802