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Impact of memory on human dynamics

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  • Vazquez, Alexei

Abstract

Our experience of web access slowing down is a consequence of the aggregated web access pattern of web users. This is just one example among several human-oriented services which are strongly affected by human activity patterns. Recent empirical evidence is indicating that human activity patterns are characterized by power-law distributions of inter-event times, where large fluctuations rather than regularity is the common case. I show that this temporal heterogeneity can be explained by two mechanisms: (i) humans have some perception of their past activity rate and (ii) based on that they react by accelerating or reducing their activity rate. Using these two mechanisms I explain the inter-event time statistics of Darwin's and Einstein's correspondence and the email activity within an university environment. Moreover, they are typical examples of the accelerating and reducing class, respectively. These results are relevant to the system design of human-oriented services.

Suggested Citation

  • Vazquez, Alexei, 2007. "Impact of memory on human dynamics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 373(C), pages 747-752.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:373:y:2007:i:c:p:747-752
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2006.04.060
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Li, Kai & Lv, Tianyang & Shen, Huawei & Qiao, Lisheng & Chen, Enhong & Cheng, Xueqi & Sun, Zhi, 2020. "An empirical analysis on the behavioral differentia of the “Elite-Civilian” users in Sina microblog," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 539(C).
    2. Tang, Da-Hai & Han, Xiao-Pu & Wang, Bing-Hong, 2010. "Stretched exponential distribution of recurrent time of wars in China," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(13), pages 2637-2641.
    3. Li, Mingjie & Orgun, Mehmet A. & Xiao, Jinghua & Zhong, Weicai & Xue, Liyin, 2012. "The impact of human activity patterns on asymptomatic infectious processes in complex networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(14), pages 3718-3728.
    4. Guo, Shengyu & Zhang, Pan & Ding, Lieyun, 2019. "Time-statistical laws of workers’ unsafe behavior in the construction industry: A case study," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 515(C), pages 419-429.
    5. Wang, Wenjun & Yuan, Ning & Pan, Lin & Jiao, Pengfei & Dai, Weidi & Xue, Guixiang & Liu, Dong, 2015. "Temporal patterns of emergency calls of a metropolitan city in China," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 436(C), pages 846-855.
    6. Yang, Tian & Feng, Xin & Wu, Ye & Wang, Shengfeng & Xiao, Jinghua, 2018. "Human dynamics in repurchase behavior based on comments mining," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 502(C), pages 563-569.
    7. Pan, Jun-Shan & Li, Yuan-Qi & Hu, Han-Ping & Hu, Yong, 2021. "Modeling collective behavior of posting microblogs by stochastic differential equation with jump," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 578(C).
    8. Yan, Qiang & Yi, Lanli & Wu, Lianren, 2012. "Human dynamic model co-driven by interest and social identity in the MicroBlog community," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 391(4), pages 1540-1545.
    9. Ying Li & Hongduo Cao & Ying Zhang & Beibei Li, 2018. "Characteristics of Human Behavior in an Online Society," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(2), pages 21582440187, May.

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