Collective rituals are present in all known societies, but their function is a matter of long-standing debates. Field observations suggest that they may enhance social cohesion and that their effects are not limited to those actively performing but affect the audience as well. Here we show physiological effects of synchronized arousal in a Spanish fire-walking ritual, between active participants and related spectators, but not participants and other members of the audience. We assessed arousal by heart rate dynamics and applied nonlinear mathematical analysis to heart rate data obtained from 38 participants. We compared synchronized arousal between fire-walkers and spectators. For this comparison, we used recurrence quantification analysis on individual data and cross-recurrence quantification analysis on pairs of participants' data. These methods identified fine-grained commonalities of arousal during the 30-min ritual between firewalkers and related spectators but not unrelated spectators. This indicates that the mediating mechanism may be informational, because participants and related observers had very different bodily behavior. This study demonstrates that a collective ritual may evoke synchronized arousal over time between active participants and bystanders. It links field observations to a physiological basis and offers a unique approach for the quantification of social effects on human physiology during real-world interactions.social interaction | mirroring | recurrence plots | collective effervescence | social anthropology

Variability of repeated measurements in human performances exhibits fractal 1/ƒ noise. Yet the relative strength of this fractal pattern varies widely across conditions, tasks, and individuals. Four experiments illustrate how subtle details of the conditions of measurement change the fractal patterns observed across task conditions. The results call into question whether measurement noise and measured signal can be distinguished in human performance, suggesting that human performance is inextricably entangled with measurement context. Perhaps, though, a hypothesis of soft assembly of human performance can circumvent the conundrum (e.g., Turvey, 2007).

In some areas of cognitive science we are confronted with ultrafast cognition, exquisite context sensitivity, and scale-free variation in measured cognitive activities. To move forward, we suggest a need to embrace this complexity, equipping cognitive science with tools and concepts used in the study of complex dynamical systems. The science of movement coordination has benefited already from this change, successfully circumventing analogous paradoxes by treating human activities as phenomena of self-organization. Therein, action and cognition are seen to be emergent in ultrafast symmetry breaking across the brain and body; exquisitely constituted of the otherwise trivial details of history, context, and environment; and exhibiting the characteristic scale-free signature of selforganization.Keywords: Self-organization; Synergy; Ultrafast cognition; Context sensitivity; 1 ⁄ f noise Blink (Gladwell, 2005) tells a story of experts who spotted at first glance a forged statue previously vetted and purchased by a museum. Ultrafast perception is an example of ultrafast cognition, and the anecdote has counterparts in scientific studies demonstrating ultrafast cognition. We contend that ultrafast cognition is one of three general inconsistencies between fact and theory of cognition, and we recommend solutions that have circumvented similar paradoxes in motor coordination of the body.

No abstract

Two studies examined the feasibility, utility, and validity of Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) and Recurrence Quantification Analysis (RQA) in assessing emotion dysregulation in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). In study 1, 11 parents of children with ADHD ages 8–11 completed EMA-based ratings of their children’s mood three times daily for 28 days (82 ratings total) and questionnaires regarding their children’s emotion dysregulation. RQA was used to quantify the temporal patterning of dysregulation of the children’s mood. In study 2, five children ages 8–11 completed EMA-based ratings of their mood three times daily for 28 days. Results supported the feasibility and validity of the parent-report EMA protocol, with greater intensity, variability, and persistent patterning of variability associated with greater emotion dysregulation. Results did not support the validity of the child-report protocol, as children were less likely to complete ratings when emotionally distressed and demonstrated substantial response bias.