# ConductScience Three-Chamber Sociability Index Calculator: method and validation record

This record fixes the calculation behind the free Three-Chamber Sociability Index Calculator at https://conductscience.com/tools/three-chamber-sociability-calculator, and the worked examples that check it.

## What the tool computes

From chamber and interaction-zone times in the three phases of the three-chamber test:

- a habituation side-preference flag, from the two side chambers;
- the sociability index and preference score (stranger against empty chamber), from chamber and zone times;
- the social novelty index and preference score (novel against familiar mouse), from chamber and zone times;
- group means, SDs and SEMs of the four indices.

An index with no time in either compared chamber or zone is not computable.

## Files

| File | Contents |
| --- | --- |
| `METHODS.md` | Formulas, conventions, references, and changes from the page before this record |
| `cases.json`, `cases.csv` | The worked examples: inputs, expected outputs and where each expected answer comes from |
| `validation-report.json` | The engine's output for every case, pass or fail, and the SHA-256 of each engine file |
| `engine/` | The calculation source files the report fingerprints (when included) |
| `data_dictionary.csv` | Columns of `cases.csv` |
| `CITATION.cff`, `LICENSE`, `MANIFEST.json` | Citation metadata, licence, and byte count and SHA-256 of every file |

## How to cite

ConductScience. ConductScience Three-Chamber Sociability Index Calculator [software]. 2026. https://doi.org/10.55157/csd.tool.threechamber.2026.001

In a methods section: "Sociability indices, (stranger − empty) / (stranger + empty), and social novelty indices were calculated with the ConductScience Three-Chamber Sociability Index Calculator (https://doi.org/10.55157/csd.tool.threechamber.2026.001); animals whose habituation time split more unevenly than 60/40 between the side chambers were flagged."