Four numbers of a wave

Threshold, peak, rise, settle

Let’s zoom in on Byeol’s wave alone. A wave of feeling can be split into four parts. How small an event can start it, how high it climbs, how fast it climbs, and how long it stays. Byeol’s wave climbs to 49 in about 37 s and takes about 1.3 h to settle.

Why?The white bar on the left is how strong the event is, and the yellow line is Byeol’s threshold. A wave only rises when the event is stronger than the threshold. These four parts differ from person to person, and they move separately. Some people feel things hugely but calm down fast, and others feel a little but for a long time.

Go furtherIn 1998 the American psychologist Richard Davidson suggested splitting a feeling into these four parts. Research that times how fast a feeling rises and settles is called affective chronometry. The numbers on screen come from this story’s model.