Hello Eleanor,
It sounds like what you want to do is record SoftCR (SOF-721 or SOF-722) data. Basically you use an array to record various events (nose pokes, lever presses, reinforcements, stimuli, etc.). The SoftCR program can then display the data in a graphical format to make it easy to see what happened during the experiment.
You should contact MED Associates Support <Support@med-associates.com> for some example code and if needed an in depth explanation on how to encode SoftCR data.
Gary