SCTPLS 36 Pre-Conference Workshop (July 29, UNC, Chapel Hill)

[Guastello, Stephen]

Dear Nonlinear Colleagues,

Here is the lineup for the pre-conference workshop at the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences conference this year at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, July 29-31.

The workshop once again features methods for nonlinear dynamical systems analysis, but served up differently. The 2026 workshop is organized in four parts: (1) Fixed points and their stability in time series; (2) a popular method, Recurrence Quantification Analysis, and its extensions, Cross-recurrence QA and Multivariate RQA; (3) catastrophe theory and the assessment of discontinuous change. (4) The last segment will be devoted to working interactively with the workshop attendees to analyze data that they brought to the conference. All sources of time series data are welcome, and many types of nonlinear analysis for real data could be applied.

1. FIXED POINTS AND THEIR STABILITY IN TIME SERIES (presented by Bernard Ricca, University of Rochester). One of the amazing aspects of nonlinear dynamical systems is that their global behaviors can often be qualitatively (and to some extent, quantitatively,) described by local properties known as fixed points. This workshop will begin with how to identify idiographic (single subject) fixed points and their characteristics (e.g., stability) from time-series data. It will then show how to use those fixed points to understand system behaviors and trajectories in state space. Lastly, it will briefly examine control parameters and how different ranges of control parameters can influence fixed-point locations and characteristics will be presented.

2. RECURRENCE QUANTIFICATION ANALYSIS: Tools for Indexing System Dynamics Across Time and Scale (presented by Adam W. Kiefer, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). This tutorial-based and hands-on workshop introduces Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA), a suite of nonlinear time series methods for quantifying recurrent structure in nonlinear dynamical systems. Participants will learn the foundations of RQA, along with its key extensions—Cross-Recurrence (CRQA) for dyadic coordination, Joint-Recurrence (JRQA) for system comparisons, and Multidimensional RQA (MDRQA) for analyzing high-dimensional interaction-dominant systems. Through accessible examples and demonstrations in MATLAB, we will cover core concepts such as recurrence plots, determinism, entropy, and laminarity. No prior experience with RQA is required—just curiosity about dynamic systems and behavioral change.

3. CATASTROPHE THEORY (presented by Stephen Guastello, Marquette University). Its central theorem is that all discontinuous changes of events can be described and predicted by one of seven elementary topological models. Catastrophe models range from simple to complex, and involve different configurations of attractors, repellors, saddles, bifurcations, and control variables. They are regularly implicated in phenomena involving phase shifts and self-organizing behavior. Catastrophes are one of the earliest types of nonlinear dynamics to cross into the social sciences with empirical supporting evidence. This portion of the nonlinear methods workshop covers basic principles, some classic applications, and the statistical procedures for testing catastrophe models. Although the cusp catastrophe model is by far the most popular of the seven elementary models, some attention will be given to exploring the larger scale models. 

4. BYO DATA segment: (MC'd by Bernard Ricca) Please have your data organized in a format for time series analysis, with each row of the data file representing measurements for each point in time. If you have your data formatted for SPSS or a similar statistical program, go ahead and obtain descriptive statistics for your variables if you have not already done so. From there, export your data to an EXCEL spreadsheet and a CSV version of EXCEL. Some of the analyses we could do run on programs that utilize the more primitive data formats.

For more information about the Pre-Conference Workshop and the presenters, please visit Workshops on the conference website!

Register now here to participate! 

To register, go to the conference registration from (see menu) and select the workshop box (and supply the other basic and essential information). Workshop registrations are a separate checkbox from registration for the main conference.

We look forward to meeting everyone in Colorado Springs,

Best regards, 

Cordially yours, the Conference Committee

Adam Kiefer, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Barney Ricca, Ph.D., University of Rochester
Cortney Armitano-Lago, Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
Stephen J. Guastello, Ph.D., Marquette University