An Ordinal Sequencing Technique for Assessing Multidimensional or Hierarchical Change Models

Abstract

Many scientific disciplines involve the study of growth, development, evolution, or other kinds of multidimensional or hierarchical change processes. The order in which these changes occur can be important to the scientist. Further, understanding these changes may depend on determining not only the order in which they occur, but also the relationships among them. As the broader perspectives now obtaining in science challenge our previous assumptions of linearity and simple sequences, we increasingly require techniques that allow us to view change in a more complex, combining and branching fashion, but with the discipline of statistical rigor.