Behavioral observation plays an important role in behavioranalysis. At the same time, it is a part of scientific behavior from the view point of behavior analysis. The observational data that are the output of this observation are evaluated by other scientists, and as a result the behavior will be maintained or extinguished in the future. For our normative analysis of observational behavior, we defined two phases of observational behavior, sensing behavior and coding behavior. In the former, raw data are produced from what is observed by sensing it and converting its analog input to the digital output. In the latter, observational data are produced from raw data by using mathematical operations and selective processing. Mathematical operations handle the data by statistical, numerical functional, and other operations. Selective processing selects the range and points of processing data by changing the accuracy, setting criteria, clustering related data, ordering the clusters and data, summarizing the data, and relating some dimensions to other dimensions. Methods of behavioral recording and indices of behavior were analyzed in relation to sensing and coding behavior. Systemetic description of them using the two phases of observational behavior showed that the methods of recording and indicwes of behavior were common outputs of the observational behavior, except that they stressed different aspects of the definition of the target behavior in coding the behavior. It was also showed that six types of selective processing were very useful tools for analyzing observational behavior.
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