--- "R.W. (Bob) Erickson" wrote:

One of the tools currently being used in the cognitive sciences is the measurement of reaction time to stimulus.

What's this? The cognitive equivalent to wacking someone on the knee with a rubber hammer to measure the mentak kick reflex of the subject?

It turns out that the length of time it takes to given situations is a credible proxy for how difficult the discrimination is to make.

For the individual subject. I would imagine that such testing would (among other things) allow some measurement of the thoughtfullness put into a response. Careful construction of the tests to control for various factors might then allow inferences to be made about the relative sophistication to be found in the cognitive structures involved in the test-response on a subject-by-subject basis.

Imagine a paranoia involving mysterious e-mail delays and the length of time it takes to catagorize

Imagine hordes of otherwise unemployable psychologists and cognitive psychologists deployed on mailing lists and Usenet, harassing the fuck out of `persons of interest'. Civil rights, for the majority of the civilian population, are entirely non-existent for all intents and purposes. I imagine that a great many self-styled scientists are happily engaged in the cultivation and acquisition of psycho-social data and knowledge, in public fora, without too much thought about the morality of their intrusive meddling in the commons. All in the name of science, of course. Regards, Steve ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca

Roy M. Silvernail wrote:

Steve Thompson wrote:

...

--- "R.W. (Bob) Erickson" wrote:

...

Imagine a paranoia involving mysterious e-mail delays and the length of time it takes to catagorize

Imagine hordes of otherwise unemployable psychologists and cognitive psychologists deployed on mailing lists and Usenet, harassing the fuck out of `persons of interest'.

Imagine using observed timing to conclude that your agent provocateur operates from geostationary orbit.

R. W. may be annoying, but at least he's derivative.

Total novelty is a fiction. If its not familiar, you wouldnt recognize it We all work with the same handicaps but some of us have agenda's and others have excuses. I am a collection of projects, mine is the semantic path, if anything of significance is missed, I'll send back reports from the other side --bob maker of absurtities no tangle too complex to fit through the I of my needle

R.A. Hettinga wrote:

At 10:16 PM -0500 12/9/04, Roy M. Silvernail wrote:

...

Imagine using observed timing to conclude that your agent provocateur operates from geostationary orbit.

...And here I thought VALIS was all in his head...

Right idea, wrong book. R. W. "Bob" is the frog on Detweiller's shoulder. -- Roy M. Silvernail is roy@rant-central.com, and you're not "It's just this little chromium switch, here." - TFT SpamAssassin->procmail->/dev/null->bliss http://www.rant-central.com

--- "Roy M. Silvernail" wrote:

Steve Thompson wrote:

...

[imagine]

Imagine using observed timing to conclude that your agent provocateur operates from geostationary orbit.

That would be a neat trick considering the variety of likely signal path lengths to be found in the terrestial telephone network or the terrestial Internet. All in all, there are so many varibles in such conjecture as to make the hypothesis largely indeterminate. But it is amusing to consider the potential existence of the CIA Orbital Alien Mind Control Laser Cannon(tm).

R. W. may be annoying, but at least he's derivative.

Derivative of what, exactly? Regards, Steve ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca