The ideal animal stimulus is under total control of the experimenter, has visual traits and behavior patterns that can be varied in any way, and produces consistent test trials that can be easily repeated many times. Sounds too far-fetched? Computer animated animal stimuli provide the opportunity to control for all these aspects under standardized conditions necessary to test a given hypothesis. Although computer animations arouse lots of interest among researchers for its advantages, many are reluctant to use it because of seemingly big technical requirements necessary for creating animal stimuli, and the apparently disparate worlds of biology and computer science. Most of these concerns arise from lack of exposure and conversation.
The symposium will demystify the process of creating animations to reduce such concerns. It will offer the possibility to share knowledge and advice on tools and programs for building 2-D and 3-D stimuli of various animals.
Interested? Join us at Behaviour 2015!