On the use of hansen frequencies for estimating rates of behavior

When the occurrence of a behavior is governed by aPoisson process over time, then the mean rate of behavior can be estimated usingHansen frequencies, which record whether the behavior has occurred at least once or not at all in each of several time periods. Here this estimate of the mean rate of behavior, based onHansen frequencies, is compared with the usual estimate, and its properties as an estimate of the mean rate of behavior are discussed in cases where the behavior is not governed by aPoisson process.This research was supported in part by Navy Grant N00014-67-A-0285-0009 to the Department of Statistics, University of Chicago, and by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to the Department of Theoretical Biology.