Estimating Appropriate Lag Length for Synchronized Physiological Time Series: The Electrodermal Response.

Area of Science:

• Psychophysiology
• Social Neuroscience
• Mathematical Modeling

Background:

• Physiological synchronization of autonomic arousal is key in interpersonal dynamics like work teams and therapy.
• Understanding synchronization requires appropriate mathematical models and determining lag lengths for measurements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine concepts and mathematical models of synchronization relevant to work teams.
• To develop and test strategies for determining appropriate lag lengths in nonlinear modeling of physiological data.

Main Methods:

• Investigated four strategies for lag length determination.
• Conducted an experiment with 78 undergraduates in pairs performing a vigilance task for 90 minutes.
• Recorded galvanic skin responses (GSR) to measure autonomic arousal.

Main Results:

• Lags determined by mutual entropy and natural rate criteria yielded corroborating results.
• Strategies based on linear autocorrelation (max r/e) and Theiler's W were not usable in this context.
• Found connections between linear autocorrelation, mutual entropy lag, task performance, and workload ratings.

Conclusions:

• Mutual entropy and natural rate are promising methods for determining lag in physiological synchronization studies.
• The findings contribute to understanding how to model interpersonal physiological synchrony in team settings.
• Further research can refine these methods for applications in various interpersonal contexts.