Which behavioral assessment method involves counting the number of times a target behavior occurs during a specified time period?

• A. Narrative recording
• B. Interval recording
• C. Reactivity
• D. Event Recording

Answer: (D)

Counting how often a behavior happens within a defined time period is best captured by event recording. In this approach, you tally each instance of the target behavior as it occurs, producing a precise frequency and, with a known observation duration, a rate per unit of time. This works well for discrete, clearly defined behaviors where separate occurrences can be distinguished. Unlike interval recording, which checks whether the behavior occurred at least once during each interval (and can miss multiple occurrences within the same interval), event recording captures every instance. Narrative recording, by contrast, is descriptive and does not yield a precise count of occurrences, and reactivity refers to the phenomenon that observation can change behavior rather than a data collection method. Therefore, the method described by counting each occurrence per time period is event recording.