Temporal Indices

Context

In BayesiaLab, you can assign Temporal Indices to nodes. This allows defining a temporal order between nodes, which is taken into account by the learning algorithms when a network is learned.
For instance, a learning algorithm would not discover that node A is a parent or ancestor of node B if the Temporal Index of node A is greater than the Temporal Index of node B.
Temporal Indices can take on any real values equal to or greater than 0.
A Temporal Index of 0 would refer to the nodes associated with the oldest possible point on a timeline, while higher values indicate that nodes are associated with more recent points on that same timeline.
However, there is no meaning associated with the interval between individual Temporal Indices. For learning purposes, in the case of two nodes, the Temporal Indices of 0 and 1, respectively, convey exactly the same temporal ordering as the values of 0.2 and 0.3, for example.
By default, there are no Temporal Indices assigned to nodes.

There are several ways to edit Temporal Indices:
- Select Node Context Menu > Properties > Temporal Index and specify a value.
- Select Graph Panel Context Menu > Edit Temporal Indices to open the Temporal Indices Editor.
- Click on the Temporal Index indicator in the [Status Bar](/Users/stefanconrady/Library/CloudStorage/OneDrive-BayesiaUSA/ClickHelp Backup/project-backup_bayesialab_2024-06-07_08-24-26/HTML/graph-windows-status-bar.html) to bring up the Temporal Indices Editor.

For illustration purposes, we use the well-known Visit Asia example. Here, we assign a temporal ordering based on domain knowledge, i.e., demographic variables preexist prior to risk factors, which precede conditions, which come before symptoms.
Furthermore, we use the Associate Color function in the Temporal Indices Editor and sort the table in ascending order.

The Import and Export buttons in the Temporal Indices Editor allow you to manage Temporal Indices using Dictionaries.