**2. Example: Studies of learning behavior analysis**

Take learning science, for example, many studies in education discipline have applied sequential analysis and content analysis to understand learners' behavioral patterns in learning and interaction (e.g., [9]–[11]). Behavior analysis is applied in many research topics, such as learners' discussion process or content analysis in computer-supported collaborative learning, CSCL [10], users' operation behaviors, and discussion behaviors in game-based learning activities [5, 9]. Overall, behavior analysis research in education discipline includes two dimensions.

The first type is exploring the potential structure of human behaviors in specific fields (e.g., [9, 12]).

The second type is developing innovative behavior analysis techniques or coding systems to analyze complex human behaviors (e.g., [3, 8, 13]).

The former type belongs to the deeper exploratory research, which does not have statistical presumptions about research hypothesis but discovers new patterns by collecting a large amount of data for behavior analysis and exploring all the possible structures. The latter type is more about the innovation in research methods and instruments. These two research types that the author categorizes above can also be applied in the behavior analysis research of other disciplines. These two research types need to work together to improve research method innovation and the quality of latent structure analysis. These studies are expected to contribute in exploring all kinds of behavioral structures that have not been discovered. Especially in the era of big data, techniques and speed of calculations keep improving, which has an important meaning in the development of behavior analysis. More precise behavior analysis research can help us explain the structures/patterns in big data and discover more complex but important issues with solutions. On the other hand, less precise behavior analysis research or the one without progress may negatively influence our lives because our decisions or judgments will be automatically processed through inaccurate behavior analysis in the era of artificial intelligence.

This book collects the latest behavior analysis research in different disciplines, including some methods or analysis examples as references for the readers, who are interested. These research outcomes and analysis methods help the readers better understand the theories and practices of behavioral pattern analysis.
