Abstract
How do humans perceive the passage of time and the duration of events without a dedicated sensory system for timing? Previous studies have demonstrated that when a stimulus changes over time, its duration is subjectively dilated, indicating that duration judgments are based on the number of changes within an interval. In this study, we tested predictions derived from three different accounts describing the relation between a changing stimulus and its subjective duration as either based on (1) the objective rate of changes of the stimulus, (2) the perceived saliency of the changes, or (3) the neural energy expended in processing the stimulus. We used visual stimuli flickering at different frequencies (4–166 Hz) to study how the number of changes affects subjective duration. To this end, we assessed the subjective duration of these stimuli and measured participants' behavioral flicker fusion threshold (the highest frequency perceived as flicker), as well as their threshold for a frequency-specific neural response to the flicker using EEG. We found that only consciously perceived flicker dilated perceived duration, such that a 2 s long stimulus flickering at 4 Hz was perceived as lasting as long as a 2.7 s steady stimulus. This effect was most pronounced at the slowest flicker frequencies, at which participants reported the most consistent flicker perception. Flicker frequencies higher than the flicker fusion threshold did not affect perceived duration at all, even if they evoked a significant frequency-specific neural response. In sum, our findings indicate that time perception in the peri-second range is driven by the subjective saliency of the stimulus' temporal features rather than the objective rate of stimulus changes or the neural response to the changes.
Highlights
The term ‘‘time perception’’ describes a variety of processes including the perception of durations from milliseconds to years, or judgments of temporal order and synchronicity, which have been discussed intensively in philosophy, psychology and cognitive neuroscience [1,2]
We know that perceived duration of events does not always concur with objective time, as expressed by proverbs like ‘‘a watched pot never boils’’. One reason for this is that time cannot be perceived by a dedicated sensory organ, and perceived duration strongly depends on the content of the time interval
The idea that the content of a time interval affects its perceived duration can be found in the writing of the French philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau (1854–1888), who argues that ‘‘temporal experience is constructed based on the intensity of the stimuli, the number of stimuli, the attention paid to the stimuli, the associations of the stimuli, the extend of the differences between the stimuli and the expectations called by the stimuli.’’ [4]
Summary
The term ‘‘time perception’’ describes a variety of processes including the perception of durations from milliseconds to years, or judgments of temporal order and synchronicity, which have been discussed intensively in philosophy, psychology and cognitive neuroscience [1,2]. The relation between stimulus features and perceived duration of the stimulus has been central to psychological theories of time perception (see for instance [6,7,8,9]), and has set the ground for a host of scientific studies. Many of these studies refer to an influential proposal by Paul Fraisse, who suggested that the number of changes perceived during a time interval is of particular importance to the interval’s perceived duration [10], p. Many of these studies refer to an influential proposal by Paul Fraisse, who suggested that the number of changes perceived during a time interval is of particular importance to the interval’s perceived duration [10], p. 233. ‘‘Change’’, in this context, can refer to any transformation of the stimulus across time, including changes in intensity, number, or space
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