Research Team
- Magnus S. Magnusson, Research Professor, Emeritus, Director 1991-2024
- Gudberg K. Jonsson, PhD, Director & Research Scientist - ResearchGate
- Throstur Jonasson, Technical Advisor
Board
- Thor Eysteinsson, PhD, Professor
- Thorsteinn Hauksson, Musical Composer
- Einar H. Guðmundsson, PhD Professor
Research & Development Collaboration
Theme
Introduction
The Theme software performs intensive structural analysis of real-time records of the behavior of one or more individuals performing various kinds of behaviors in sequence and/or concurrently. Theme was initially developed as a tool for the study of human (face-to-face) interactions, but its application has been extended to other types of behavioral phenomena involving other time scales {here link to: references and thesis).
The program is primarily intended for use by persons with knowledge of behavior (and statistics), i.e., mostly students and researchers in the behavioral sciences.
Theme is sometimes called a "structure-scope" or a "pattern-scope" and sometimes a "behavior-scope".
The Theme program is therefore a kind of structural "seeing aid" that facilitates the difficult task of discovering, describing and eventually explaining the structure of complex processes that unfold in time such as intra- and inter-individual streams of behavior.
The detection key is the repetition of similar, hierarchical real-time relations between the occurrences of various types of behavioral events.
It is true for this "pattern-scope" as for microscopes that what is perceived and retained by the user is a function of both him- or her-self and the instrument; including such aspects as data preparation. A seeing aid helps to discover and describe if the observer is aware of the kind of "glasses" he or she is wearing.
History of Theme
The Theme program by Magnus S. Magnusson has evolved over a number of years from a DOS program written in FORTRAN IV on PDP11 computers at the Psychological Laboratory, Copenhagen University (Magnusson, 1982).
Its development was then continued by M. S. Magnusson at the Anthropology Laboratory of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris (1984-1988) and then at the University of Paris (V, VIII, XIII) 1989-1993.
Its development has since been continued at the Human Behavior Laboratory, University of Iceland founded and directed by Prof. Magnusson and in collaboration with a number of laboratories in Europe and the USA.
Theme is now a WINDOWS 95/982000 and NT program written in the DELPHI programming language (Magnusson, 2000) and is used in a number of psychological and ethological laboratories in Europe, USA and Japan.
Theme has always been used in behavior analysis where the detection and interpretation of repeated hidden behavior patterns and the effect of independent variables on behavior and interactions have been central concerns.
The software development has now been transferred to Pattern Vision Ltd in collaboration with the Human Behavior Laboratory, U.I.
Theoretical background of Theme
The theoretical background of the research and development at the Human Behavior Laboratory is indicated in:
- Magnusson, M. S. (2000). "Discovering Hidden Time Patterns in Behavior: T-Patterns and their Detection." Behavior Research Methods, Instruments and Computers, 32(1): pp. 93-110.
- Magnusson, M.S. (1996) "Hidden Real-Time Patterns in Intra- and Inter-Individual Behavior: Description and Detection." European Journal of Psychological Assessment, Vol. 12, Issue 2, p. 112-123. See also references.
The basic viewpoints can be suggested through the following citations:
- "The activity of man constitutes a structural whole, in such a way that it cannot be subdivided into neat "parts" or "levels" or "compartments" insulated in character, content, and organization from other behavior. Verbal and nonverbal activity is a unified whole, and theory and methodology should be organized or created to treat it as such." (Pike, 1960, p. 2).
- "Behavior consists of patterns in time. Investigations of behavior deal with sequences that, in contrast to bodily characteristics, are not always visible." (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1970, p. 1; Opening statement of Ethology: The Biology of Behavior. Emphasis added).
- "...we need to identify the countless patterns and natural sequences of behavior occurring whenever persons come into one another's immediate presence." (E. Goffman, 1967; here cited from A. Kendon, 1990, p. ix).
- "Occasions of interaction are, most of the time, ordered affairs. When two people greet one another, when several sustain a conversation, when a committee meets to conduct its business, when people pass one another on the street, most of the time these are ordered occasions in the sense that they "come off" in an unnoticed fashion." (Kendon, 1990, p. 1).
- "An occasion of interaction such as a conversation, thus, may be looked upon as an occasion in which the participants enter into a complex system of relationships which nonetheless may be understood in terms of general principles which are discoverable and generally applicable, even though the course of any specific encounter is unique (cf. Kendon 1963, Argyle and Kendon 1967)." (Kendon, 1990 p. 4). Emphasis added.