title: Behavior states: now you see them, now you don't.
abstract: Guess, Roberts, Behrens, and Rues (1998) presented reliability data from recordings of behavior state using a 13-category coding system. Interobserver agreement was reported at 63% to 91% across categories. In an attempt at replication, we found lower levels of reliability (0% to 80%). To determine the reasons for different results, we obtained measurements of behavior states from video-recordings by five of Guess et al.'s observers. Again, replication was unsuccessful. Obtained mean percentage agreement on occurrence for individual behavior states and participants ranged across observer pairs from 0% to 58% (kappa range was 0 to .64). Some possible reasons for failures to replicate are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Keele University, Staffordshire. O.C.Mudford@keele.ac.uk
authors.forename: O C
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Mudford
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hogg
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D015588:Observer Variation; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014741:Video Recording