Cognitive emissions of 1/f noise.
The residual fluctuations that naturally arise in experimental inquiry are analyzed in terms of their time histories. Although these fluctuations are generally relegated to a statistical purgatory known as unexplained variance, this article shows that they may harbor a long-term memory process known as 1/f noise. This type of noise has been encountered in a number of biological and physical systems and is theorized to be a signature of dynamic complexity. Its presence in psychological data appears to be associated with the most elementary aspect of cognitive process, the formation of representations.
Gilden
D L
DL
Department of Psychology, Mezes 330, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712, USA. gilden@psy.utexas.edu
D003071:Cognition; D019336:Cognitive Science / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D011589:Psychology, Experimental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological