Embodied nonlinear dynamics of cognitive performance.
Colin T. Annand, John G. Holden · Journal of Experimental Psychology General · 2022
= 128) were asked to generate sequences that were representative of a random sequence, by successively pressing either of two buttons across 1,600 trials. Statistical analyses identify the binary button-press dynamics with a discrete sine-circle version of the Haken, Kelso, Bunz bimanual coordination model. Permutation analyses revealed the most common one- to five-trial subsequences were identified with the most dynamically stable coordinative relationships, consistent with bimanual coordination predictions. The sequences were consistent with scaling noises. Thus, participants' sequences departed from classical randomness by virtue of membership in a more inclusive category of variability that subsumes classical randomness. Recurrence quantification analysis revealed the mixture of stochasticity and determinism in the sequences was better approximated by the sine-circle model than by phase-randomized surrogate data sets that preserved both the power spectral densities and distributions of each participant's sequence. A relationship between randomness production and two-alternative forced-choice performance is established that constrains response time distribution models. The article's organization illustrates a nonreductive approach to inference for cognitive systems, inspired by statistical physics concepts such as renormalization group theory and universality. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).