TY - JOUR
T1 - From physics to social interactions
T2 - Scientific unification via dynamics
AU - Amazeen, Polemnia
N1 - Funding Information:
The author acknowledges the work of colleagues and students that contributed to these ideas, including Eric Amazeen, Jamie Gorman, Eric Hessler, Aaron Likens, Cameron Gibbons, and Aron Karabel. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation [ BCS 1255922 ] (P. Amazeen). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2018/12
Y1 - 2018/12
N2 - The principle of dynamical similitude—the belief that the same behavior may be exhibited by very different systems—allows us to use mathematical models from physics to understand psychological phenomena. Sometimes, model choice is straightforward. For example, the two-frequency resonance map can be used to make predictions about the performance of multifrequency ratios in physical, chemical, physiological and social behavior. Sometimes, we have to dig deeper into our dynamical toolbox to select an appropriate technique. An overview is provided of other methods, including mass-spring modeling and multifractal analysis, that have been applied successfully to various psychological phenomena. A final demonstration of dynamical similitude comes from the use of the same multifractal method that was used to extract team-level experience from the neurophysiological data of individual team members to the analysis of a large scale economic phenomenon, the stock market index. Continual development of analytical methods that are informed by and can be applied to other sciences allows us to treat psychological phenomena as continuous with the rest of the natural world.
AB - The principle of dynamical similitude—the belief that the same behavior may be exhibited by very different systems—allows us to use mathematical models from physics to understand psychological phenomena. Sometimes, model choice is straightforward. For example, the two-frequency resonance map can be used to make predictions about the performance of multifrequency ratios in physical, chemical, physiological and social behavior. Sometimes, we have to dig deeper into our dynamical toolbox to select an appropriate technique. An overview is provided of other methods, including mass-spring modeling and multifractal analysis, that have been applied successfully to various psychological phenomena. A final demonstration of dynamical similitude comes from the use of the same multifractal method that was used to extract team-level experience from the neurophysiological data of individual team members to the analysis of a large scale economic phenomenon, the stock market index. Continual development of analytical methods that are informed by and can be applied to other sciences allows us to treat psychological phenomena as continuous with the rest of the natural world.
KW - Coordination
KW - Dynamics
KW - Modeling
KW - Multifractal
KW - Nesting
KW - Social
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052431714&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85052431714&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.cogsys.2018.07.033
DO - 10.1016/j.cogsys.2018.07.033
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85052431714
SN - 1389-0417
VL - 52
SP - 640
EP - 657
JO - Cognitive Systems Research
JF - Cognitive Systems Research
ER -