Magnus Magnusson

University of Iceland | HI · Human Behavior Laboratory

This project was inspired in the sixties by primatologist Morris's (1967) “The Naked Ape,” Tinbergen (1963), Von Frisch (1967), and Lorenz (1974) ethological research, rewarded in 1973 by a shared Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, and Wilson's (1975) opus “Sociobiology”. Other important inspirations were Skinner (1969) work on probabilistic re...

With the explosive growth of human knowledge especially in the twenteeth century with even greater facilitation of access to knowledge, the world of even relatively recent great thinkers becomes daunting as seen from a modern viewpoint. Recently, humans ignored the existence of the complex intracellular world of cell organs, giant information molec...

This project started in the 1970’s inspired by biological behavior research (Morris, 1967; Tinbergen, 1965) including that of N. Tinbergen, K. Lorenz and K. von Frisch, for which they shared a Nobel Prize in 1973 in Medicine or Physiology, the first for ethological research. Further inspiration came from research on social insects and children (Mon...

This work, which was started in the early 1970s, was inspired by social interaction analysis based on direct observation and careful coding of behaviors according to a list of behavioral (mostly ethological) categories, especially the ethological work of N. Tinbergen, K. Lorenz, and K. von Frisch, for which they shared a Nobel Prize in 1973 in Medi...

Background: The behaviour of all living beings consists of hidden patterns in time; consequently, its nature and its underlying dynamics are intrinsically difficult to be perceived and detected by the unaided observer. Method: Such a scientific challenge calls for improved means of detection, data handling and analysis. By using a powerful and v...

This study was undertaken to investigate whether, in rat interactive activities, recurring sequences of behavioural events might be identified and how and to what extent each component of the pair is involved. To this aim, the multivariate temporal-pattern (t-pattern) analysis was applied to the social interactions of 9 pairs of male Wistar rats te...

The tech world is creating a future of wearable devices that promises to entertain consumers and help them live healthier lives. Technology companies’ interests in health and wellness have sparked the creation of a myriad of wearable devices, from fitness bands that monitor activity and sleep patterns to flexible patches that can detect body temper...

Rationale The largest amount of researches on the hot-plate test was carried out using quantitative assessments. However, the evaluation of the relationships among the different elements that compose the behavioral response to pain requires different approaches. Although previous studies have provided clear information on the behavioral structure o...

The present chapter addresses the application of T-Pattern Detection to video games research. By their nature as interactive media, games offer great degrees of freedom for their users which can result in very different gaming experiences; strictly speaking, no two sessions are the same. If researchers do not plan to solely rely on summative post-s...

This chapter concerns the temporal structure of behavior and interaction amongst individuals as diverse as brain neurons and humans. It suggests a view of behavior and interaction in terms of recurrent self-similar tree structures, T-patterns, which thus have the basic characteristics of fractals and exemplify translation symmetry through the simil...

Studies indicate that men and women show quantitative differences in their production of facial movements. However, less is known regarding the qualitative aspect of facial differences between women and men. The aim of this study was to determine whether men and women could present a gender-specific temporal organization of facial movements. Eighte...

In our laboratories we use T-pattern analysis to study rat behavior in different and well-known experimental assays widely employed as rodent models of anxiety: the open field, the hole board and the elevated plus maze. By using Theme software and T-pattern analysis, we have observed that numerous events, characterizing rodent behavior in each exper...

Intentional acts of harm to self are among the most dramatic and disturbing behaviors exhibited by human beings and frequently exact a heavy toll in terms of the emotional and economic burden that must be borne by affected individuals, families, caregivers, and society. One major obstacle to understanding and treating self-injurious behavior (SIB)...

Nausea is a common clinical symptom reported by many patients experiencing cytotoxic anticancer therapy, gastrointestinal disease, and postoperative recovery. Although the neurological basis of vomiting is reasonably well established, an understanding of the physiology of nausea is lacking. The primary barrier to mechanistic research on nausea is t...

A thorough look at the different research applications of temporal pattern detection and analysis using specially developed software, THEME (TM). The T-system is a model for discovering hidden recurring patterns in observable behavior and can be useful to researchers in neuroscience, psychology, biology, robotics, finance, medicine, and many other...

This study tested emotion-focused therapy (EFT) theory assumptions concerning optimal emotion schematic processing during experiential psychotherapies. Emotion schematic change was investigated in the particular problem context of resolving self-criticism, an emotion schematic vulnerability to depression identified across all major psychotherapy th...

Aim of present article is to illustrate the application of a multivariate approach known as t-pattern analysis in the study of rat behavior in elevated plus maze. By means of this multivariate approach, significant relationships among behavioral events in the course of time can be described. Both quantitative and t-pattern analyses were utilized to...

The emetic reflex occurs as a pattern of motor responses produced by a network of neurons in the hindbrain. Despite an understanding of the sequence of motor outputs that form an emetic episode (EE), the variability in the dynamics of multiple EEs across time remains a mystery. Many clinical investigations rely on once a day patient recall of total...

The aim of present research is to study the temporal structure of the behavior in two strains of rats with different basal level of emotionality. To this purpose, the temporal profile of the behavior in Wistar rat and in the spontaneously more anxious DA/Han strain was analyzed in the Elevated Plus Maze. Both quantitative and multivariate t-pattern...

Aim of the research was to evaluate, by means of quantitative and multivariate temporal pattern analyses, the behavior of Wistar rat in elevated plus maze (EPM) test. On the basis of an ethogram encompassing 24 behavioral elements, quantitative results showed that 130.14±8.01 behavioral elements occurred in central platform and in closed arms (prot...

This article deals with the definition and detection of particular kinds of temporal patterns in behavior, which are sometimes obvious or well known, but other times difficult to detect, either directly or with standard statistical methods. Characteristics of well-known behavior patterns were abstracted and combined in order to define a scale-indep...

Recent observations of complex sequences of neuronal activity, at the level of both synaptic transmission and action potential generation amongst simultaneously sampled multiple neurons, have demonstrated that such patterns can occur spontaneously in the brain. Using multielectrode array (MEA) technology we have sampled simultaneously from a large...

Self-injuring acts are among the most dramatic behaviours exhibited by human beings. There is no known single cause and there is no universally agreed upon treatment. Sophisticated sequential and temporal analysis of behaviour has provided alternative descriptions of self-injury that provide new insights into its initiation and maintenance. Forty h...

The highly demanding study of meaning, intention, and communication including miscommunication, in human interaction seems to call for the development of powerful new approaches and in that context the astonishing raw power of modern computers may eventually be harnessed, given that adequate models, methods, algorithms and software be developed and...

Nausea and vomiting are common symptoms in patients with many diseases, including cancer and its treatments. Although the neurological basis of vomiting is reasonably well known, an understanding of the physiology of nausea is lacking. The primary barrier to mechanistic research on the nausea system is the lack of an animal model. Indeed investigat...

By means of t-pattern analysis, it has been observed that the different events, characterizing rat behavior in hole board (HB), present close interrelationships which occur sequentially and with significant constraints on the interval lengths separating them. The aim of present research was to study, by means of descriptive and multivariate t-patte...

The aim of present research was to analyze the temporal structure of rodent's anxiety-related behavior in hole-board apparatus (HB). Fifteen male Wistar rats were tested for 10 min. Video files, collected for each subject, were coded by means of a software coder and event log files generated for each subject. To assess temporal relationships among...

The following paper introduces a new approach to the analysis of sports and motor skill performance. The approach, known as T-pattern detection, is explained and preliminary data analyses from soccer, boxing, basketball, swimming and motor skill analysis are presented. The data show that specific temporal patterns can be identified within sports pe...

Offers a fresh and detailed take on the evolution of religious behavior from a biobehavioral perspective, promoting a new understanding that may help build bridges across the religious divide. There has been much recent interest in the study of religion from the perspective of Darwinian evolution. The Biology of Religious Behavior: The Evolutionary...

There has been much recent interest in cognitively motivated paradigms for the design of humanoid soccer playing robots. In addition, some proto-attempts have been made to bring the 3D simulation and humanoid RoboCup leagues closer to each other. In the present paper, we outline the basic concepts of our Neurocognitive Artificial General Intelligen...

The temporal structure of every-day human behavior and interactions is certainly a complex affaire rich in repeated patterns or translation symmetry. This paper concerns a view of the structure of real-time streams of behavior as repeated, temporal patterns of a particular kind called t-patterns. An instance of a pattern of this kind consists of a...

There has been much recent interest in cognitively motivated paradigms for the design of humanoid soccer playing robots. In addition, some proto-attempts have been made to bring the 3D simulation and humanoid RoboCup leagues closer to each other. In the present paper, we outline the basic concepts of our Neurocognitive Artificial General Intelligen...

The behavioural analysis of human-robot interactions can help in developing socially interactive robots. The current study analyzes human-robot interaction with Theme software and the corresponding pattern detection algorithm. The method is based on the analysis of the temporal structure of the interactions by detecting T-patterns in the behaviour....

Time structure of behavioural patterns of broiler breeders were investigated to assess comparative behavioural complexity using “Theme”. The behaviour of an experimental dwarf heavy broiler breeder selected for better viability and reproductive traits at the partial expenses of growth (E) was compared to a standard heavy broiler breeder (S). Both w...

A new time structure model and pattern detection procedures developed by (Magnusson, M.S., 1996. Hidden real-time patterns in intra- and inter-individual behaviour description and detection. Eur. J. Psychol. Assess. 12, 112-123; Magnusson, M.S., 2000. Discovering hidden time patterns in behaviour: T-patterns and their detection. Behav. Res. Methods...

Sleep recordings consist of various physiological signals, such as EEG, EMG, EKG, EOG, airflow, effort, and SpO2. Current analytical methods in sleep focus on counting specific events that are determined by predefined criteria and scoring rules. In addition, specific parasomnias are counted, such as apneas, hypopneas, desaturations and snoring peri...

The dynamics of interaction between actors making up an organized system is a complex matter where myriads of events are constantly happening within ever changing spatial and temporal contexts that determine the ultimate meaning, effect and function of each event. For the understanding of such systems quantification alone is not enough, matters of...

We investigated the temporal structures of behavioural interactions. Our approach is characterized by two major features: data were collected at high temporal and spatial resolutions that revealed acts invisible to the unaided eye and patterns were detected in the collected data using THEME. We investigated courtship displayed by a fruitless mutant...

Current techniques of repeated suicide risk assessment are not reliably predictive, and research into new methods is needed. The judgment of clinicians relies partly on nonverbal signs such as facial expressions. If differences in patients and/or interviewer's facial expressions appeared between subjects who were to make subsequent attempts (Repeat...

Laying foundations for an interdisciplinary approach to the study of evolution in communication systems with tools from evolutionary biology, linguistics, animal behavior, developmental psychology, philosophy, cognitive sciences, robotics, and neural network modeling. The search for origins of communication in a wide variety of species including hu...

Human environments consist to a large extent of repeated spatiotemporal patterns which are typically composed of simpler patterns. Most humans are thus surrounded by houses, streets, cars, shops, and omnipresent behavior patterns composed of verbal and nonverbal elements. Human individuals are, of course, themselves patterns of parts, such as trunk...

Quantitative analysis of sports performance has been shown to produce information that coaches can use within the coaching process to enhance performance. Traditional methods for quantifying sport performances are limited in their capacity to describe the complex interactions of events that occur within a performance over time. In this paper, we ou...

The individual time patterns of salivary testosterone of adult healthy men, self-reported sexual behavior and their co-occurrence with regular weekly or monthly intervals were studied. Twenty-seven volunteer males (mean age 33 +/- 1 years) collected daily morning saliva over a period of 90 days. Evening questionnaires provided daily information on...

Quantitative analysis of sports performance has been shown to produce information that coaches can use within the coaching process to enhance performance. Traditional methods for quantifying sport performances are limited in their capacity to describe the complex interactions of events that occur within a performance over time. In this paper, we ou...

The following paper introduces a new approach to the analysis of sports performance. The approach, known as T-pattern detection, is explained and preliminary data analyses from the sports of soccer and boxing are discussed. The data presented show that specific temporal patterns can be identified within sports performances. The temporal patterns ca...

Nonrandom time patterns of pecking acts by 16 chicks were detected using the software Theme during three videotaped pecking sessions (M, C, and A). At 15 days of age pecking session, M (mash) was recorded when chicks ate a mash diet. Pecking session C (change) at 16 or 17 days of age was recorded immediately after the change of the diet to pellets...

OBSERVE is a preliminary release of a multimedia course for teaching undergraduate and graduate students how and why to study behavior by direct observation. The instructional text and commentary and the self-test and examination materials are built around a series of exercises in which the student observes and categorizes film clips of the behavio...

This article deals with the definition and detection of particular kinds of temporal patterns in behavior, which are sometimes obvious or well known, but other times difficult to detect, either directly or with standard statistical methods. Characteristics of well-known behavior patterns were abstracted and combined in order to define a scale-indep...

This study examines the existence of behavioral correlates of synchronization on different levels of analysis and methods. We were unable to demonstrate a relation between synchronization defined in terms of movement echo or position mirroring and subjective experience of pleasure and interest in opposite-sex encounters. Significant results were fo...

Proposes a structural hypothesis for the regularity of human behavior, where continuous interaction is seen as the performance of a set of particular type of temporal patterns. Some of these repeated intra- and inter-individual real-time behavior patterns may be mutually exclusive in time while others may develop in various ways. Perceptual limitat...

THEME, a new method for analyzing the temporal structure of responding on a two-choice task, is described. This method reveals the time relationships (temporal patterns) between all response events, even those not occurring in direct sequence. It selects those temporal patterns that are significantly different (p < 0.0001) from the patterns found i...

Associated with neurological anomalies, many behavioural deficits are induced by the staggerer mutation. In order to define the consequences of this mutation on the staggerer male social behaviour we realised experimental dyadic encounters with non-mutant and unfamiliar females, either in estrous or in anestrous condition. We compared mutant behavi...

Adult male staggerer mice reared under standard conditions display no sexual behaviour. When maintained for a time with normal female mice however 5% of the mutant males were able to copulate. We hypothesized that the effects of such social experience would be revealed most clearly by changes in the pattern of male behaviour. Two groups of mutant m...

In the first part of this paper we report on a new method we have developed for the study of the genesis and regulations of the behavior of infants in interactive situations. Detailed information is given on the following aspects: 1. The technical characteristics of the device that allows the infants to be seated in an upright position; 2. The diff...

Studied the effects of age and problem-solving ability on the occurrence and the composition of patterns of referential communication exchanges. Human Ss: 16 normal male and female French preschool and school-age children (aged 5 yrs 6 mo to 6 yrs) (8 dyads). 16 normal male and female French school-age children (aged 7 yrs to 7 yrs 6 mo) (8 dyads)....

Reports on a new method developed for the study of the genesis and regulations of the behavior of infants in interactive situations. Uninterrupted video-taping permitted 2 analyses of the behavioral data: (1) macroscopic analysis (84 items and 12 behavioral categories) and (2) microscopic analysis (222 items and 14 categories) using a special softw...