conditional probabilities and temporal relationships
Message posted by Dosia Paclawskyj on February 16, 2000 at 12:00 AM (ET)

I have a data set on two variables of interest for which I have calculated conditional probabilities. However, the data were collected as follows: during a 10-minute observation period, data were scored by laptop computer. Each variable of interest was scored as occurring or not occurring within a 10-second interval. Thus, the probability of
variable A and the probability of variable B were obtained by dividing the intervals in which the variable occurred by the total number of observation intervals. The probability of (A and B) was obtained by dividing the number of intervals in which both occurred by the total number of intervals. The standard conditional probability formula was used
for the probability of B given that A occurred.

My question is do I know whether or not there is a temporal relationship (A occurred before B) given that I used 10-second interval data? That is, I don't know which occurred first within the 10-second interval and they most often did not occur at the exact moment in time together. Can I still say that my conditional probability data reflect that
A consistently preceded B? Or is this not possible because of the method of data collection.

Thanks in advance,

Dosia Paclawskyj