Abstract: It has been studied that the residence time distribution(RTD)function in a screw extruder in relation to that in thescrew and that in the die.For a complex flow field such as that between screw and die,it was supposed that the RTDfunction in the screw and that in the die were almost independent on each other.Therefore,a probabilistic method wasused to predict the RTD function in a complete extruder from that in the screw and that in the die.The experiments fordetermining the RTD were based on a stimulus-response technique.The results predicted,both in single-screw extruderand in twin-screw extruder,were in good agreement with those experimentally obtained.