Detecting changes in simulated events II: Using variations of momentary time‐sampling to measure changes in duration events

The extent to which a greater proportion of small behavior changes could be detected with momentary time‐sampling (MTS) was evaluated by (a) combining various interval sizes of partial‐interval recording (PIR) with 20 s, 30 s, 1 min MTS and (b) using variable interval sizes of MTS that were based on means of 20 s and 1 min. For each targeted percentage, low, moderate, and high inter‐response times (IRTs) to event‐run ratios were compared with reversal designs to determine whether sensitivity increased with either variation of MTS. The results showed that (a) combinations of 30 s and 1 min MTS/PIR yielded increased sensitivity over MTS alone; however, the increased sensitivity was offset by an increased probability of generating false positives and (b) variable‐interval MTS produced comparable sensitivity to fixed‐interval MTS. Thus, none of the methods increased detection of small behavior changes (decreased false negatives) without also increasing false positives. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.