Abstract
Children's time estimation literature lacks of studies comparing prospective and retrospective time estimates of long lasting ecological tasks, i.e. tasks reflecting children's daily activities. In the present study, children were asked to estimate prospectively or retrospectively how much time they played a video game or read a magazine. Regardless of the task, the results revealed that prospective time estimates were longer than the retrospective ones. Also, time estimates of the video game task were longer, less accurate and more variable than those of the reading task. The results are discussed in the light of the current literature about time estimation of long lasting ecological tasks.
Highlights
From an adaptive stand point, time estimation is an important ability that individuals need to master in order to adapt to their environment
Whereas prospective timing is reported to depend mainly on the amount of attention dedicated to time — with more attention to time resulting in longer perceived duration— retrospective timing is based mostly on memory processes and the number along with complexity of events that occur during the period to be timed, with more events and higher complexity resulting in longer perceived duration [3,7]
It should be mentioned that three time estimate dependent variables were used in analysis: (a) the estimated-to-target duration ratio, (b) the absolute standardized error and (c) a Weber Fraction like index
Summary
From an adaptive stand point, time estimation is an important ability that individuals need to master in order to adapt to their environment. Literature on time estimation draws a distinction between prospective and retrospective timing [1,2,3,4,5]. In the former case, participants are informed in advance that they will have to judge time, while, in the latter case, they are told they will have to do so only after they have completed a task. Since time estimation is made at the same moment, i.e. once the task is over, the key difference between these two conditions is that in the prospective paradigm, participants are aware that time is a critical component during the task, and can allow more attentional resources to time [6]. Researchers have been interested in understanding the paradigm differences with adult participants, very few have studied them with children samples
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