Nonlinear Contingency Analysis is a guide to treating clinically complex behavior problems such as delusions and hallucinations. It’s also a framework for treating behavior problems, one that explores solutions based on the creation of new or alternative consequential contingencies rather than the elimination or deceleration of old or problematic thoughts, feelings, or behaviors. Chapters present strategies, analytical tools, and interventions that clinicians can use in session to think about clients’ problems using decision theory, experimental analysis of behavior, and clinical research and practice. By treating thoughts and emotions not as causes of behavior but as indicators of the environmental conditions that are responsible for them, patients can use that knowledge to make changes that not only result in changes in behavior, but in the thoughts and feelings themselves.

Quantification of categorical, or non-numerical, data is a problem that scientists face across a wide range of disciplines. Exploring data analysis in various areas of research, such as the social sciences and biology, Multidimensional Nonlinear Descriptive Analysis presents methods for analyzing categorical data that are not necessarily sampled randomly from a normal population and often involve nonlinear relations. This reference not only provides an overview of multidimensional nonlinear descriptive analysis (MUNDA) of discrete data, it also offers new results in a variety of fields. The first part of the book covers conceptual and technical preliminaries needed to understand the data analysis in subsequent chapters. The next two parts contain applications of MUNDA to diverse data types, with each chapter devoted to one type of categorical data, a brief historical comment, and basic skills peculiar to the data types. The final part examines several problems and then concludes with suggestions for future progress. Covering both the early and later years of MUNDA research in the social sciences, psychology, ecology, biology, and statistics, this book provides a framework for potential developments in even more areas of study.

Clinical behavior analysis uses verbally based interventions to treat a range of psychological problems in an outpatient context. This volume offers a collection of current research in this rapidly expanding field, with a special focus on acceptance issues in therapy and the importance of the therapeutic relationship.

Over the last 15 years, singular spectrum analysis (SSA) has proven very successful. It has already become a standard tool in climatic and meteorological time series analysis and well known in nonlinear physics and signal processing. However, despite the promise it holds for time series applications in other disciplines, SSA is not widely known among statisticians and econometrists, and although the basic SSA algorithm looks simple, understanding what it does and where its pitfalls lay is by no means simple. Analysis of Time Series Structure: SSA and Related Techniques provides a careful, lucid description of its general theory and methodology. Part I introduces the basic concepts, and sets forth the main findings and results, then presents a detailed treatment of the methodology. After introducing the basic SSA algorithm, the authors explore forecasting and apply SSA ideas to change-point detection algorithms. Part II is devoted to the theory of SSA. Here the authors formulate and prove the statements of Part I. They address the singular value decomposition (SVD) of real matrices, time series of finite rank, and SVD of trajectory matrices. Based on the authors' original work and filled with applications illustrated with real data sets, this book offers an outstanding opportunity to obtain a working knowledge of why, when, and how SSA works. It builds a strong foundation for successfully using the technique in applications ranging from mathematics and nonlinear physics to economics, biology, oceanology, social science, engineering, financial econometrics, and market research.

Written by leading experts in language and cognition, this groundbreaking behavior analysis textbook brings the study of verbal behavior into the 21st century with cutting-edge research. Students and clinicians in the burgeoning field of applied behavior analysis will find the theoretical foundation they need to effectively help the increasingly diverse clients seeking their services. The origins of behavior analysis can be traced to the pioneering work of B.F. Skinner. Skinner’s fundamental insights into how human behavior is shaped, maintained, and can be changed were powerful and far-reaching. Some of Skinner’s most innovative contributions were in the study of language. Behavior analytic work in the area of language and cognition did not stop with Skinner, however. Indeed, Skinner’s work in this area has inspired considerable expansion, particularly with an eye toward more sophisticated verbal and cognitive repertoires. This important volume provides an overview of the concepts and core behavioral processes involved in language and cognition. You’ll find a deeper exploration of complex linguistic and cognitive skills, including generative responding, learning by observation, and perspective taking. Also included are clinically supported interventions based in mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and emotion regulation to help clients improve complex language, social, and academic skills. The future of behavior analysis is here. With its focus on the importance of language and cognition, this textbook is a must-read for anyone studying or practicing in the science of behavior.

This book presents the elaboration model for the multivariate analysis of observational quantitative data. This model entails the systematic introduction of "third variables" to the analysis of a focal relationship between one independent and one dependent variable to ascertain whether an inference of causality is justified. Two complementary strategies are used: an exclusionary strategy that rules out alternative explanations such as spuriousness and redundancy with competing theories, and an inclusive strategy that connects the focal relationship to a network of other relationships, including the hypothesized causal mechanisms linking the focal independent variable to the focal dependent variable. The primary emphasis is on the translation of theory into a logical analytic strategy and the interpretation of results. The elaboration model is applied with case studies drawn from newly published research that serve as prototypes for aligning theory and the data analytic plan used to test it; these studies are drawn from a wide range of substantive topics in the social sciences, such as emotion management in the workplace, subjective age identification during the transition to adulthood, and the relationship between religious and paranormal beliefs. The second application of the elaboration model is in the form of original data analysis presented in two Analysis Journals that are integrated throughout the text and implement the full elaboration model. Using real data, not contrived examples, the text provides a step-by-step guide through the process of integrating theory with data analysis in order to arrive at meaningful answers to research questions.

The last two decades have seen enormous developments in statistical methods for incomplete data. The EM algorithm and its extensions, multiple imputation, and Markov Chain Monte Carlo provide a set of flexible and reliable tools from inference in large classes of missing-data problems. Yet, in practical terms, those developments have had surprisingly little impact on the way most data analysts handle missing values on a routine basis. Analysis of Incomplete Multivariate Data helps bridge the gap between theory and practice, making these missing-data tools accessible to a broad audience. It presents a unified, Bayesian approach to the analysis of incomplete multivariate data, covering datasets in which the variables are continuous, categorical, or both. The focus is applied, where necessary, to help readers thoroughly understand the statistical properties of those methods, and the behavior of the accompanying algorithms. All techniques are illustrated with real data examples, with extended discussion and practical advice. All of the algorithms described in this book have been implemented by the author for general use in the statistical languages S and S Plus. The software is available free of charge on the Internet.

As a generalization of simple correspondence analysis, multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) is a powerful technique for handling larger, more complex datasets, including the high-dimensional categorical data often encountered in the social sciences, marketing, health economics, and biomedical research. Until now, however, the literature on the su

Since mathematical models express our understanding of how nature behaves, we use them to validate our understanding of the fundamentals about systems (which could be processes, equipment, procedures, devices, or products). Also, when validated, the model is useful for engineering applications related to diagnosis, design, and optimization. First, we postulate a mechanism, then derive a model grounded in that mechanistic understanding. If the model does not fit the data, our understanding of the mechanism was wrong or incomplete. Patterns in the residuals can guide model improvement. Alternately, when the model fits the data, our understanding is sufficient and confidently functional for engineering applications. This book details methods of nonlinear regression, computational algorithms,model validation, interpretation of residuals, and useful experimental design. The focus is on practical applications, with relevant methods supported by fundamental analysis. This book will assist either the academic or industrial practitioner to properly classify the system, choose between the various available modeling options and regression objectives, design experiments to obtain data capturing critical system behaviors, fit the model parameters based on that data, and statistically characterize the resulting model. The author has used the material in the undergraduate unit operations lab course and in advanced control applications.

Clinicians and behavior therapists.