in search of correct term

[Nicky]

Hi all, 

For my project i have looked at the total number of correct pokes minus the amount of  'correct' pokes that the mouse did while there was still a pellet in the dispenser or while the box was in the process of dispensing a pellet. My supervisor and I figured we could call this "effective correct nosepokes", since the other ones (with pellet or during dispense) effectively do nothing or can be considered premature. 

Now, we want to look at the accuracy. Normally, we'd take the correct nosepokes, divide them by the total amount of nosepokes made and multiply by 100. However,  instead of using the total number of correct nosepokes, we want to use these effective correct ones (the remainder of the caclulation will remain the same).

My question here: does anyone have any suggestions on what to call this accuracy using the effective correct nosepokes (instead of just the correct ones)? I have been calling it 'effective accuracy', but is this intuitive enough? Or should we go for a different term? 

I hope this all makes sense...

Either way, thanks a lot in advance! 

(I am aware that the 'leftwith pellet'  or 'right during dispense' etc. events could also be due to the fed3 box itself and not due to the behaviour of the mouse, but judging by what the data looks like, this seems highly unlikely.) 

[Matt Gaidica]

Hi Nicky,

Your term “effective accuracy” makes sense, but I think a slightly more standard phrasing in behavioral neuroscience might be “Reinforcement‑Contingent Accuracy.” It emphasizes that only nosepokes that could result in reinforcement are counted, which matches your definition of “effective correct nosepokes.”

This terminology is often used in operant paradigms to distinguish reinforced responses from spurious or premature ones. For example, see how reinforced vs. non-reinforced responses are treated in this paper, where only responses eligible for reinforcement are considered in performance metrics.

So, the metric would be:

Reinforcement‑Contingent Accuracy = (effective correct pokes ÷ total pokes) × 100%.