  The fine structure of the isoscalar giant quadrupole resonance in ^{208}Pb,
observed in high-resolution (p,p') and (e,e') experiments, is studied using the
entropy index method. In a novel way, it enables to determine the number of
scales present in the spectra and their magnitude. We find intermediate scales
of fluctuations around 1.1 MeV, 460 keV and 125 keV for an excitation energy
region 0 - 12 MeV. A comparison with scales extracted from second RPA
calculations, which are in good agreement with experiment, shows that they
arise from the internal mixing of collective motion with two particle-two hole
components of the nuclear wavefunction.
