Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Measuring Attention and Visual Processing Speed by Model-based Analysis of Temporal-order Judgments
Published on: January 23, 2017
Power law signature of media exposure in human response waiting time distributions
Riley Crane1, Frank Schweitzer, Didier Sornette
1Department of Management, Technology, and Economics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. rcrane@ethz.ch
Abstract:
We study the humanitarian response to the destruction brought by the tsunami generated by the Sumatra earthquake of December 26, 2004, as measured by donations, and find that it decays in time as a power law ∼1/tα with α=2.5 ± 0.1 . This behavior is suggested to be the rare outcome of a priority queuing process in which individuals execute tasks at a rate slightly faster than the rate at which new tasks arise. We believe this to be an empirical evidence documenting the recently predicted [G. Grinstein and R. Linsker, Phys. Rev. E 77, 012101 (2008)] regime, and provide additional independent evidence that suggests that this "highly attentive regime" arises as a result of the intense focus placed on this donation "task" by the media.
Related Concept Videos
The Availability Heuristic
Parametric Survival Analysis: Weibull and Exponential Methods
Weibull Distribution
The Weibull distribution is a flexible model used in parametric survival analysis. It can handle both increasing and decreasing hazard rates, depending on its shape parameter...
Pharmacokinetic–Pharmacodynamic Relationship: Duration of Dose-Effect Relationship
Pharmacokinetic–Pharmacodynamic Relationship: Exposure, Response and Effect
Pharmacodynamic Models: Link Model and Systems Pharmacodynamic Model
Methods of Medium Optimization
