"...measurement procedure for obtaining a tally or count of the number of times a behavior occurs" (Cooper et al, 2007, p. 695).

Refers to the fact that a behavior can occur repeatedly through time (i.e., behavior can be counted) (e.g., count, frequency, rate)

Refers to the fact that every instance of behavior occurs during some amount of time

Behavior occurs at a certain point in time with respect to other events

Dividing behavior into time intervals and noting whether the behavior did/did not occur during (or at end) of interval

"Once the interval has ended, the observer records whether the behavior has occurred throughout the entire interval. Whole-interval recording tends to underestimate how much a behavior is occurring because the behavior has to be emitted for the entire interval in order to get recorded" (Cooper et al, 2007, p. 90).

"With the partial-interval recording method, the time of observation is again divided into intervals and a behavior is recorded as having occurred if it has occurred at some point during the interval. Data are usually reported as percentage of intervals" (Cooper et al, 2007, p. 92).