Methodological Problems in Measuring Ambulation in the Open Field

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Abstract
Three factors often ignored by investigators measuring ambulation in an open field are litter differences, observer bias, and time of day of testing. Evidence is given to show that each of these factors can have a significant effect on ambulation scores in the open field, and failure to control these factors can lead to systematic biases which would decrease the validity of results. Despite the importance of these factors, in a sample of 40 recent studies a majority of experiments failed to mention any control procedures for two or more of these variables. This failure is particularly serious when there is a lack of other behavioral measures supporting conclusions based on ambulation data.

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