Fractal geometry, and its sister discipline chaos theory, has generated many explorations in psychology, perhaps in part because of the perceived connections between fractal geometry and postmodernism, and between postmodernism and psychology. No doubt some of these applications have taken considerable liberties with the specific scientific meanings of fractal constructions. Yet this direction also holds great promise. As an indicator of the amount of energy expended on this connection, we mention there is a "Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences:" http://www.societyforchaostheory.org/
A recent meeting of this society included, among many others, these papers.
| Fractal memory for visual form | Keith Clayton and Barbara Frey. Visual memories are modeled by IFS, changes of memories are described as changes in the IFS parameters. Empirical results on visual memory are interpreted in terms of this model. |
| Patient transferencce development as an iterated function | Tom Meacham. The IFS formalism is compared with the dynamics of psychoanalytic treatment. Results suggest fractal aspects of the ego.} |
| Fractal functionality and differential psychology | Irina Trofimova. Tendencies of functional groups repeated at different levels of complexity are recognized as self-similarity of functional differentiation. The psychology of individual differences is investigated with this model. |
Here are two relatively concrete examples of fractals in psychology.
| EEG Patterns |
| Visual Perception |