Which observational recording technique would likely underestimate behavior if used?

Whole interval recording is a technique used to measure behavior by observing whether a target behavior occurs throughout the entire interval of time specified. If the behavior does not occur for the full duration of the interval, it is not recorded as having happened. This method may lead to an underestimation of the true frequency of the behavior because it requires the behavior to persist for the whole interval to be counted. If the behavior occurs at any point but does not last the entire duration of the interval, that occurrence will be overlooked in the data collection. Therefore, this method may not fully capture all instances of the behavior, especially if the behavior is brief or occurs intermittently within the interval.

In contrast, techniques like partial interval recording, frequency recording, and momentary time sampling have different approaches that may capture more occurrences or estimate behavior differently, which makes them less likely to result in underestimating a behavior compared to whole interval recording.