Differences In Time Perception Research Articles

Differences in time perception as a function of strength of handedness

Research has established that objective measures of time rarely have a perfect correlation with subjective judgments of time. Given that proper time perception appears to depend upon access to right-hemisphere processing (e.g., Harrington, Haaland, & Knight, 1998), the present paper investigates the link between strength of handedness and subjective time judgments. In two distinctive time- associated decision-making tasks, results indicated that mixed-handers (individuals who use their non-dominant hand for at least a few activities), perceived time differently than strong-handers (individuals who use one hand predominantly). These findings signify a link between strength of handedness and different levels of interhemispheric communication, consistent with previous handedness literature, and suggest that researchers studying time perception or problems involving the perception of time should incorporate measures of handedness strength.

Bring Me to Belize: A Timeless Journey

Time is a concept that varies from culture to culture. This article describes differences in time perception of patients in Belize compared to those in the United States. A medical mission team's approach to care with regard to time perception is also provided.

Inter-individual differences in time perception: Gene–brain-psychological function

Inter-individual differences in time perception: Gene–brain-psychological function

The cultural differences in time and time management: A socio-demographic approach

Purpose/Objectives: The aim of this article is to investigate perceived cultural differences in the perceptions of time and time management, and the implications regarding productivity amongst socio-demographic groups in Gauteng. This study indicates that socio-demographic variables such as home language, gender, education, age and income are related to various factors of time perception.Design/Methodology/Approach: The questionnaire consisted of 35 questions to be rated on a five-point Likert scale. Six dimensions of time were measured, namely, the sense of purpose, effective organisation, structured routine, present orientation, persistence and a global time perception. A multi-cultural non-probability convenience sample (n=804) was drawn from residents in the Gauteng region. Respondents were selected from upper- middle- and lowerincome groups residing in various suburban areas and townships in the region. Students of the North-West University carried out the fieldwork.Findings/Implications: The research study found that the dimensions sense of purpose and persistence of time obtained the highest mean factor scores: 4.05 and 3.95 respectively on the 1 (negative) to 5 (positive) scale, with 87, 4% and 83.8% of the respondents obtaining high scores (above 3.40) respectively. This implies that most respondents felt that they spent their time usefully and meaningfully, while at the same time, would not give up until the task was completed. The dimension present orientation of time produced the lowest mean factor score of 3.09, with 29.4% of respondents obtaining scores below 2.60, indicating a lack of focusing on completing a task at a designated point in time. The study also found that organisations have to increase productivity and reduce costs. The consequences of this for many employees included increased workloads, longer working hours and greater time pressure.Originality/Value: The findings of this study are original and innovative. The results suggest that instructors should be sensitive to cultural differences in time perception when introducing time-management programs. The five time dimensions identified in this study may further serve as guidelines for key focus areas in time-management programs. The impact relating to training means it is important to identify efficient and effective ways to measure learning transfer, particularly in those areas traditionally regarded as "soft" and impossible to measure.

Lying to Insurance Companies: The Desire to Deceive among Physicians and the Public

This study examines the public's and physicians' willingness to support deception of insurance companies in order to obtain necessary healthcare services and how this support varies based on perceptions of physicians' time pressures. Based on surveys of 700 prospective jurors and 1617 physicians, the public was more than twice as likely as physicians to sanction deception (26% versus 11%) and half as likely to believe that physicians have adequate time to appeal coverage decisions (22% versus 59%). The odds of public support for deception compared to that of physicians rose from 2.48 to 4.64 after controlling for differences in time perception. These findings highlight the ethical challenge facing physicians and patients in balancing patient advocacy with honesty in the setting of limited societal resources.

Time perception differences in children with and without ADHD*1

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to compare time perception in children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with use of a time reproduction task. Methods: The sample consisted of 60 children (30 with ADHD and 30 without ADHD) ranging in age from 9 to 12 years. Children were asked to watch a light, verbally estimate how long the light was illuminated, and hold a lever in a depressed position for the same amount of time they thought the light was on. Each child participated in 16 trials of 3, 6, 12, or 24 seconds for a total of 64 trials. Results: Children with ADHD had significantly greater absolute discrepancy scores on the time reproduction task (F1,58 = 10.878; P <.01) than did children in the control group. In addition, children with ADHD had greater increases in absolute discrepancy scores across time intervals (F3,174 = 82.08; P <.01). Discussion: Poor time perception affects the performance of social skills and other adaptive behaviors such as health consciousness and concerns for safety. The findings of this study indicate that children with ADHD have impaired time perception compared with children who do not have ADHD. J Pediatr Health Care. (2003). 17, 64-71.

Time perception differences in children with and without ADHD

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to compare time perception in children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with use of a time reproduction task. Methods: The sample consisted of 60 children (30 with ADHD and 30 without ADHD) ranging in age from 9 to 12 years. Children were asked to watch a light, verbally estimate how long the light was illuminated, and hold a lever in a depressed position for the same amount of time they thought the light was on. Each child participated in 16 trials of 3, 6, 12, or 24 seconds for a total of 64 trials. Results: Children with ADHD had significantly greater absolute discrepancy scores on the time reproduction task (F1,58 = 10.878; P <.01) than did children in the control group. In addition, children with ADHD had greater increases in absolute discrepancy scores across time intervals (F3,174 = 82.08; P <.01). Discussion: Poor time perception affects the performance of social skills and other adaptive behaviors such as health consciousness and concerns for safety. The findings of this study indicate that children with ADHD have impaired time perception compared with children who do not have ADHD. J Pediatr Health Care. (2003). 17, 64-71.

Time perception as a measure of pain intensity and pain type

The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to investigate the relationship between time perception and pain intensity while controlling for the effects of anxiety, depression, and perceived control over pain; and (2) to investigate the differences in time perception among the sufferers of somatic, neuropathic, and combined pain. The study utilized the following measures of independent and dependent variables: a 3-minute retrospective time estimation task, a Numerically Anchored Pain Intensity Scale, the McGill Pain Questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Hospital Anxiety Scale, and the Numerically Anchored Perceived Control Over Pain Scale. The results revealed two things: (1) greater pain intensity is associated with overestimation of time and the majority of pain patients report a perceived slowing down of time while in pain; and (2) there were no differences in time perception as a function of pain type. The results of this study present several potential diagnostic and therapeutic uses for pain patients.

The relation between temperament and rate of temporal discounting

The present study examines the relationship between several temperamental traits (sensation seeking, extraversion–introversion, and impulsivity) and rate of temporal discounting, that is the rate of decrease in the subjective value of a reward as the delay to its receipt increases. Participants made choices between hypothetical monetary rewards that could be obtained immediately or after a specified delay. Temporal discounting functions were calculated and differences in rate of discounting between different groups were evaluated. For all groups of participants, hyperbolic discounting functions described well the decreases in subjective value with delay (R2 ranged from 0.700 to 0.985). The rate of discounting was equivalent in high and low sensation seekers. However, both extraverts and high impulsive individuals showed higher temporal discounting rates than introverts and low impulsive individuals. The relationship between temperament and temporal discounting may be related to differences in time perception and/or to differences in susceptibility to rewards in extraverts versus introverts and in high- versus low-impulsive individuals.

Time perception and consumer behaviour: some cross‐cultural implications

Perception of time differs across cultures. As time perception is a critical component of consumer decision making, awareness of such differences is a key to successful cross‐cultural marketing. Mistakes in international marketing efforts are frequently traceable to ethnocentric cultural assumptions. No culture's perception of time is ‘right’, but there can be a tendency to impose such assumptions without cultural self‐awareness. Time perception differences in four cultures are examined: Anglo, Hispanic, Eastern and Arabic. Implications for marketing efforts due to these cross‐cultural differences are offred.

Stress, time distortion, and failure to recover among obese individuals: Implications for weight gain and dieting

The present study evaluated the pattern of time perception distortions for 31 obese and 30 nonobese individuals when stress was induced and then removed. A 2 × 3 repeated measures ANOVA was used to evaluate group differences in time perception for baseline, stress, and postsress conditions. At baseline, no between-group differences were found. However, obese subjects showed a significant increase in internal clock rate over nonobese subjects during the stress period which was maintained throughout the postress period. These findings suggest that obese individuals perceive time as passing more slowly when under stress and maintain this time distortion after external stress has been removed. Implications for weight gain and failure to sustain dieting behaviors for obese individuals are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

Sex differences in time perception.

In an experiment on discrimination of duration of auditory stimuli in the range of milliseconds 16 men and 16 women were tested. Men scored better than women in discrimination of duration as well as in required session time. These results were discussed in terms of the assumption of a neurotransmitter-related internal clock and with respect to sex differences in reaction time.

Time urgency and the Type A behavior pattern: Implications for time investment and psychological entrapment

Type A's have been described as more time urgent than Type B's, and research indicates that they underestimate the passage of fixed time intervals. The present study examined the implications of these differences in time perception for decisions where time is a resource that can be invested. Type A's and B's were given an initial stake of $4 and provided the opportunity to invest some or all of that amount for the chance to win an additional $2. Investment occurred as a function of time, with subjects believing they would win the additional $2 if a counter reached a randomly determined number. Each unit increment on the counter also resulted in the loss of 1¢ from the initial stake, thus as the counter progressed, goal attainment became more certain, but expenses also increased. Subjects could stop the counter at any time and keep the remainder of their initial stake or continue to invest until the initial stake was depleted (the counter was programmed to never hit the “jackpot”). Half of the subjects could monitor the counter directly, while the other half could not and had to rely on their subjective time estimates. Results indicated that when objective time passage cues were present, Type A's and B's did not differ in their investment decisions. When subjects had to estimate time passage, however, Type A's invested far more than Type B's. These results indicate that under appropriate conditions, Type A's are more susceptible than Type B's to psychological entrapment.

Auditory and visual differences in time perception.

The present experiment assessed intersensory differences in temporal judgments, that is, auditory stimuli are perceived as longer than physically equivalent visual stimuli. The results confirmed the intersensory difference. Auditorially defined intervals were experienced as longer than visually defined intervals. Auditory boundaries were perceived as longer than visual ones. An interaction of boundary modality and interval modality was obtained which suggested that auditorially defined intervals provided more temporal information about events occurring in close temporal proximity than visually defined intervals. It was hypothesized that cognitive factors, specifically stimulus complexity, would affect the auditory and visual systems differentially. This hypothesis was not substantiated, although highly complex stimuli were experienced as longer than those of low complexity.

Time perception: effects of introversion/extraversion and task interest.

32 extraverted and 32 introverted college students rated the interest value and estimated the duration of 3-min. intervals filled with reading. There were 3 dull and 3 interesting readings. It was hypothesized that time perceptions of extraverts and introverts would differ when their interest in the task was dissimilar. But no personality differences in time perception and few in interest were found; both extraverts and introverts judged the intervals to be shorter when the reading was interesting.

Causes and consequences of time perception differences in overweight and normal weight people.

Three experiments considered whether there are differences between overweight and normal weight subjects in time perception which represent the obese subjects' lack of internal responsiveness as well as heightened external reactivity in a noneating setting. In the first study, no time-relevant cues were provided, and overweight subjects were inaccurate in their temporal judgments and showed significantly higher group variability than did normals. In the second study, the effects of differential temporal information generated by interesting and boring cues was considered. The presentation of these time-relevant external cues reduced the judgment variability of the overweight subjects and influenced their perceived passage of time significantly more than normals. The third study examined the influence, on eating behavior, of differences in perceived passage of time as a consequence of manipulating cues for interest or boredom. When bored, overweight subjects perceived time to pass more slowly than did normals and thus ate sooner. Similarly, they delayed eating, judging time to have passed more quickly than it actually had, when they were attending to interesting cues. The implications of a generalized lack of internal sensitivity for a theory about the development and consequences of obesity are discussed.