Surrogate data analysis
The purpose in this section is to examine evidence of nonlinear dynamics in the mood time series. As a first test, the data are examined for correlation structure: if a time series has no serial correlation, then genuine forecasts cannot be made from it. An empirical approach to this analysis is the method of surrogate data ([Lu 2004]; [Kantz and Schreiber 2004]). To test for correlation structure, we permute the original series several times to obtain a surrogate set with series having the same amplitude but from a random process. A test statistic is then applied to the original and the surrogates and the results displayed graphically to see if there is a difference. For the null hypothesis of white noise, we use the autocorrelation at varying lags as a test statistic.
Next, we consider the null hypothesis of a linear stochastic model with Gaussian inputs. If this cannot be not rejected, then there is a question over the use of more complex, nonlinear models for forecasting. For this analysis, the surrogate data must be correlated random numbers with the same power spectrum as the original data. This is a property of data which has the same amplitude as the original data but in different phases. Amplitude-adjusted Fourier transform (AAFT) surrogates ([Kantz and Schreiber 2004]) have a slightly different power spectrum from the original series because the original untransformed linear process has to be estimated. To make the surrogates match the original spectrum more closely, we use corrected AAFT (CAAFT) surrogates ([Kugiumtzis 2000]).