APT was compared with numerous extant methodologies, including the linear models approach and event history analysis. The fundamental difference between APT and these other approaches is that no particular mathematical model is assumed in APT. In APT a model is viewed simply as a temporal pattern, whereas in most other approaches parameters of a mathematical model are estimated from data in which variables are measured separately.Moreover, in APT probabilities of temporal patterns are estimated by relative frequency and duration.

References:

Frick, T. (1990). Analysis of Patterns in Time (APT): A Method of Recording and Quantifying Temporal Relations in Education.