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Time sampling and measurement error: the effect of interval length and sampling pattern.

J Mansell

    Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry
    |September 1, 1985
    PubMed
    Summary

    Momentary time-sampling accurately estimates behaviors occurring 25% or more of the time. However, low-frequency behaviors (2%) require longer sessions or averaged data for precise measurement.

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    Area of Science:

    • Behavioral observation methods
    • Quantitative analysis in behavioral science

    Background:

    • Momentary time-sampling is a widely used observational technique.
    • Its accuracy can be influenced by behavior frequency, observation interval, and session length.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To evaluate the accuracy of momentary time-sampling for behaviors of varying frequencies.
    • To determine optimal parameters for accurate behavioral data collection.

    Main Methods:

    • Compared momentary time-sampling accuracy across different behavior proportions (2% to 70%).
    • Varied momentary time-sample intervals (10, 20, 30 seconds) and session lengths (1 hour, 8 hours).
    • Compared 5-minute momentary time-sampling with 5-minute cluster sampling.

    Main Results:

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    • 10, 20, or 30-second intervals in 1-hour sessions accurately estimated behaviors occurring 25%, 50%, or 70% of the time.
    • Behaviors occurring only 2% of the time were inaccurately recorded, even with 10-second intervals.
    • Accurate estimation of low-frequency behaviors (25%+) required averaging 8-hour data with 5-minute momentary time-samples.
    • 5-minute cluster sampling was less accurate than momentary time-sampling but potentially useful.

    Conclusions:

    • Momentary time-sampling is accurate for high-frequency behaviors but less so for low-frequency ones.
    • Longer sessions and data averaging improve accuracy for less frequent behaviors.
    • Cluster sampling offers a less accurate but potentially practical alternative in certain contexts.