A Primer on Sampling Rates of Ambulatory Assessments

The use of ambulatory assessments (AAs) as an approach to gather self-reported questionnaires or self-collected biochemical data is constantly increasing to investigate the experiences, states, and behaviors of individuals and their interaction with external situational factors during everyday life. It is often implicitly assumed that data from different sampling protocols can be used interchangeably, despite them assessing processes over different timescales in different intervals and at different occasions, which depending on the variables under study may result in fundamentally different dynamics. There are multiple temporal parameters to consider and while there is an abundance of sampling protocols that are applied regularly, to date, there is only limited empirical background on the influence different approaches may have on the data and findings. In this review, we aim to give an overview of commonly used types of AA in psychology, psychiatry, and biobehavioral research with a breakdown by temporal design parameters. Additionally, we discuss potential advantages and pitfalls associated with the various approaches.