Abstract
Time-order errors (TOEs) occur when the discriminability between two stimuli are affected by the order in which they are presented. While TOEs have been studied since the 1860s, it is unknown whether the spatial properties of a stimulus will affect this temporal phenomenon. In this experiment, we asked whether perceived duration, or duration discrimination, might be influenced by whether two intervals in a standard two-interval method of constants paradigm were spatially overlapping in visual short-term memory. Two circular sinusoidal gratings (one standard and the other a comparison) were shown sequentially and participants judged which of the two was presented for a longer duration. The test stimuli were either spatially overlapping (in different spatial frames) or separate. Stimulus order was randomized between trials. The standard stimulus lasted 600 ms, and the test stimulus had one of seven possible values (between 300 and 900 ms). There were no overall significant differences observed between spatially overlapping and separate stimuli. However, in trials where the standard stimulus was presented second, TOEs were greater, and participants were significantly less sensitive to differences in duration. TOEs were also greater in conditions involving a saccade. This suggests there is an intrinsic memory component to two interval tasks in that the information from the first interval has to be stored; this is more demanding when the standard is presented in the second interval. Overall, this study suggests that while temporal information may be encoded in some spatial form, it is not dependent on visual short-term memory.
Highlights
Time-order errors (TOEs) of apparent duration occur when two successive stimuli are compared (Jamieson and Petrusic, 1975)
There was a significant effect of stimulus order between standard 1st (M = 7.43, SD = 7.9, 95% CI [−12.06, 26.92]), and standard 2nd (M = 74.4, SD = 30.8, 95% CI [−0.97, 149.77]) conditions, F(1,6) = 5.98, p = 0.05, η2p = 0.499, indicating the stimulus order effect was greater when the standard stimulus was presented second
The current study aimed to investigate whether TOEs can be affected by the spatial positioning of the stimuli being compared
Summary
Time-order errors (TOEs) of apparent duration occur when two successive stimuli are compared (Jamieson and Petrusic, 1975). In a typical TOE experiment, a standard and a comparison stimulus are displayed sequentially, separated by an inter-stimulus interval (ISI). First described by Fechner in the 1860s, early findings showed evidence of TOEs in many different domains, including estimations of length, loudness, brightness, and duration (Needham, 1934; Woodworth and Schlosberg, 1938). Time-Order Errors are Spatially Independent interval is overestimated and/or the second is underestimated, with the reverse being true for longer intervals (Allan, 1979). The size of the TOE decreases as the ISI increases, and trial feedback causes them to not be observed at all (Allan and Gibbon, 1994)
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