Affect-Relations: Temporal
Temporal affect-relations are the changing temporal configuration of events.
Note:
- Temporal affect-relations can be used to describe processes, change with respect to time, and system dynamics. For example, the sequence of neurons firing across synaptic connections in the human nervous system is a temporal process (associated with human sensing, thinking, and acting). See below example of a teaching-studenting process.
- Temporal affect-relations contrast with representations for structural affect-relations.
- This term is pronounced: TEM-po-ral af-FECT re-LA-tions, with emphases on the capitalized syllables.
An example of a temporal map is illustrated in the below table.
Temporal Map 1. Dynamic configuration of events for STUDENT ENGAGEMENT (On-task, Off-task) and TEACHER INSTRUCTION (Direct, Non-Direct) for TARGET STUDENT (Mona, others not shown).
CLOCK |
TARGET STUDENT |
TEACHER |
STUDENT ENGAGEMENT |
9:01 a.m. |
{ Mona |
{ Direct |
{ Off-task |
9:02 |
| |
| |
| |
9:03 |
| |
| |
{ On-task |
9:04 |
| |
| |
| |
9:05 |
| |
| |
| |
9:06 |
| |
| |
{ Off-task |
9:07 |
| |
| |
{ On-task |
9:08 |
| |
{ Non-Direct |
| |
9:09 |
| |
| |
| |
9:10 |
| |
| |
| |
9:11 |
| |
| |
{ Off-task |
9:12 |
| |
| |
| |
9:13 |
{ Null |
{ Null |
{ Null |
Each row, excluding column headings, in the temporal map indicates a 'joint temporal event' (JTE). For example, the JTE at 9:01 a.m. is: TARGET STUDENT is Mona, and TEACHER INSTRUCTION is Direct, and STUDENT ENGAGEMENT is Off-task. At 9:02 a.m. these 3 events continue, indicated by a vertical bar ( | ). At 9:03 a.m. STUDENT ENGAGEMENT changes ( { ) to On-task. Each cell in the temporal map (except in the first column and column headings) represents a 'singular temporal event' (STE). Every STE indicates the state of a CLASSIFICATION and its value at that point in time. An example of a STE is INSTRUCTION changes to Non-direct at 9:08 a.m. The classification is TEACHER INSTRUCTION, the state is 'changes to' (represented by { ), and the value is Non-direct. The Null value means that there is nothing relevant to a classification of events occuring at that time (and serves as a way of indicating the termination of a STE). A vertical bar ( | ) is a short-hand way of indicating that the previously coded temporal event is continuing to occur. For example, TEACHER INSTRUCTION changed to { Non-direct at 9:08 and | continued until 9:13 a.m., when it ended.
A chain of JTE's with their respective STE's in each row could also be represented by a di-graph, where the vertices (nodes) are temporal events, and the relation types are "is temporally followed by" and "occurs at the same time as". Each subsequent row in a temporal map implies the "is followed by" relation (e.g., JTE at 9:11 is followed by JTE at 9:12, etc.). Each row in the map implies the "occurs at the same time as" relation. By convention, a tabular representation of a temporal configuration is used, which is called a 'temporal map'.
Analysis of Patterns in Time (APT) was invented as a method for mapping and analyzing temporal event patterns by Frick (1983, 1990). This was an attempt to provide measures of temporal trajectories in education systems in terms of probabilities of event occurrences. APT is a way to characterize and measure system dynamic properties.
APT has most recently been used for research on instructional effectiveness--especially the online IU Plagiarism Tutorials and Tests.