title: Fractal timing of verbal transforms.
abstract: The paper deals with the timing pattern of perceptual change elicited by multiple repetitions of a syllable (the verbal-transformation effect). We show that the distribution of the dwell time, the time spent perceiving a given phonemic form before switching to another form, obeys a power law with an exponent valued between 1 and 2. This result is robust, occurring for meaningless syllables and for English words of different initial phonemic salience. Experiment 2 demonstrates that subjects are aware of the temporal dynamics of perceptual change. On the basis of these results, it is argued that within this paradigm the notion of a mean dwell time is ill defined and there is apparently no characteristic time scale for perceptual change.
authors.affiliation: Program in Complex Systems and Brain Sciences, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton 33431-0091, USA. Tuller@walt.ccs.fau.edu
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tuller
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Kelso
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017709:Fractals; D006801:Humans; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D011581:Psychological Tests; D013067:Speech Perception; D013997:Time Factors