name: behavior-assay-taxonomy description: Infer the assay or paradigm from video context, task text, tracked entities, and experimental cues such as social interaction, open field, courtship, resident-intruder, and novel object recognition. metadata: '{"annolid":{"always":false}}'
Behavior Assay Taxonomy
Use this skill when the user asks the bot to infer or confirm what kind of behavior experiment a video represents.
Goal
Map the available evidence into a coarse assay label that downstream planning and segmentation can rely on.
Core output
Return:
- the most likely assay type,
- confidence,
- a short rationale grounded in observable evidence,
- ambiguity notes when multiple assays remain plausible.
Common assay families
aggressionorresident_intruder: chasing, attacks, slap-in-face, retreat, escalation into fighting.social_interaction: approach, sniffing, following, nose-to-nose distance, orientation between animals.open_field: center versus periphery occupancy, locomotion, rearing, freezing.novel_object_recognition: object investigation, nose-to-object distance, dwell time near familiar versus novel objects.courtship: orientation, pursuit, mounting, song/dance/display sequences.
Decision rules
- Prefer explicit metadata or user instructions over guesswork.
- If no metadata is available, infer from repeated observable motifs, not from speculation.
- Distinguish social interaction from aggression by whether the interaction is primarily affiliative/exploratory or includes overt escalation and retreat.
- If confidence is low, say so and keep the assay generic instead of forcing a wrong label.
Integration
- Use this before feature planning.
- If the current run already provides a typed
TaskPlan, do not contradict it unless the evidence is materially stronger.