Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Hierarchical control theories of perception-action conceptualize action as control of input, occurring simultaneously atmultiple levels. These levels differ in terms spatio-temporal proximity of the perception controlled. However, it is not clearhow this interaction between different levels in a control hierarchy can be measured from the behavior of the organism.We propose that Long Range Temporal Correlations (LRTC) in RT data can be used as a measure of coupling betweendifferent control levels within such complex system. Participants perform the task of controlling a hierarchical stimuluseither at global level or at local level in a noisy presentation, while the level of control and noise are manipulated. Theresults suggest that LRTC in control task is higher for global level of control compared to local level of control in the nonoise condition. We discuss implications of the results for understanding of perception-action interactions as a complexdynamic system.