A test of multiple correlation temporal window characteristic of non-Markov processes

• Published in: European physical journal plus 2016-03, Vol.131 (3), p.50, Article 50
• Main Authors: Arecchi, F. T., Farini, A., Megna, N.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied and Technical Physics; Atomic; Cognitive tasks; Complex Systems; Condensed Matter Physics; Correlation; Markov processes; Mathematical and Computational Physics; Memory; Molecular; Optical and Plasma Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Regular Article; Theoretical; Time measurement; Visual stimuli; Visual tasks; Windows (intervals)
• ISSN: 2190-5444; 2190-5444
• DOI: 10.1140/epjp/i2016-16050-6

. We introduce a sensitive test of memory effects in successive events. The test consists of a combination K of binary correlations at successive times. K decays monotonically from K = 1 for uncorrelated events as a Markov process. For a monotonic memory fading, always. Here we report evidence of a temporal window in cognitive tasks consisting of the visual identification of the front face of the Necker cube after a previous presentation of the same. We speculate that memory effects provide a temporal window with and this experiment could be a possible first step towards a better comprehension of this phenomenon. The behaviour is maximal at an inter-measurement time around 2s with inter-subject differences. The persists over a time window of 1s around ; outside this window the behaviour is recovered. The universal occurrence of a window in pairs of successive perceptions suggests that, at variance with single visual stimuli eliciting a suitable response, a pair of stimuli shortly separated in time displays mutual correlations.