Design and reliability of a new activity-recording device.

Abstract

The device for use with rats consists basically of a wire mesh cage balanced on a central pivot. Two groups of 6 animals were run in a reliability study using six of the activity-recording units, and a breakdown is shown of variability due to unit differences, variability due to animal differences, and variability due to daily fluctuation. It appears that high correlation coefficients can be obtained only when there is considerable heterogeneity in the subjects used or when there is a lack of uniformity in the characteristics of individual recording units.