OBSERVE: A multimedia course on the observational analysis of behavior

OBSERVE is a preliminary release of a multimedia course for teaching underg raduate and graduate students how and why to study behavior by direct obser vation. The instructional text and commentary and the self-test and examina tion materials are built around a series of exercises in which the student observes and categorizes film clips of the behavior of Several different sp ecies in several different ways. Incorporation of elements from The Observe r software for computer recording and video analysis implements fully compu terized continuous recording. At present, the text, together with check she ets that the program generates, enables a comparison between one-zero, inst antaneous, and continuous sampling of the same behavioral excerpts. Matrice s are printed out for an exercise in calculating interobserver reliability. Another section supports carrying out and writing up a small observational project on human behavior in the field. Plans for the future development o f OBSERVE are briefly described.