Correlated dynamics in human printing behavior

Uli Harder and Maya Paczuski

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2006, vol. 361, issue 1, 329-336

Abstract: Arrival times of requests to print in a student laboratory were analyzed. Inter-arrival times between subsequent requests follow a universal scaling law relating time intervals and the size of the request, indicating a scale invariant dynamics with respect to the size. The cumulative distribution of file sizes is well-described by a modified power-law often seen in non-equilibrium critical systems. For each user, waiting times between their individual requests show long range dependence and are broadly distributed from seconds to weeks. All results are incompatible with Poisson models, and may provide evidence of critical dynamics associated with voluntary thought processes in the brain.

Keywords: Complex systems; Scaling laws; Stochastic processes; Random processes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:361:y:2006:i:1:p:329-336

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2005.06.079

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