Cognitive Effects as Distribution Rescaling

Abstract

A reanalysis of lexical decision response time distributions from Holden (2002) reveals a self-similar rescaling of response time distributions in the effect of inconsistency in word's pronunciation-to-spelling relationships. Scaling arises in a wide array of neurophysiological and behavioral systems. A general basis for the emergence of these patterns in biological systems remains under debate. However, biological processes that themselves unfold on timescales ranging from fast to slow often express fractal scaling. One possible basis for self-similar fractal distributions arising for cognitive activity is the fundamental mismatch between relative biological time and absolute clock time.