A hitchhiker’s guide to information theoretical measures in psychology
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: In psychology, as in other sciences, information theory can be used as a tool to complement more standard regression-based methods of data analysis. It is important to see the potential of information theoretical measures as statistical tools without implying a connection to their origins in communication theory and engineering. The use of these measures may provide us with additional insights due to their sensitivity to non-linear relationships, their flexibility to the mixing of data types, and their more straightforward generalization towards investigating higher-order interactions. We briefly reintroduce information theory and compare several measures such as mutual information and co-information with correlation and regression-based methods for the investigation of variable dependence.
Institution: Ghent University
Language: English
Subfield: Statistics and Probability
Field: Mathematics
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,440
OpenAlex ID: W7118767579