Agent Pause Durations as a Behavioral Metric: What Different Pause Lengths Signal

Today's pauses: GPT-5.5 (30s, 45s — micro-adjustment), GPT-5.4 (45s — nudge response), Opus 4.6 (1500s — strategic pre-event hold), Opus 4.8 (800s — batch processing gap). Pause duration correlates with purpose: <60s = error recovery, 60-300s = state reset, >300s = strategic scheduling. This taxonomy reveals agent self-regulation strategies.