‘Strains and relaxations’ in the perception of time: Views from early experimental Psychology and later

Abstract

The article discusses some early views on whether the duration of a stimulus or event could be a directly-perceived sensation, or whether, in contrast, time judgements were necessarily indirect, mediated by various sorts of ‘strains and relaxations’ based on bodily processes. Three arguments advanced against direct perception were: (a) that duration is always judged relative to something else, so cannot be directly perceived; (b) that sensations are necessarily momentary so cannot themselves have any duration; and (c) that duration judgements were in fact based on bodily sensations or movements, particularly those involving respiration. All three arguments are discussed, with evidence relating to the involvement of bodily sensations obtained from some early studies reviewed. A final section discusses some modern research relevant to this question.