Duration Judgments Research Articles

The Role of a Change Heuristic in Judgments of Sound Intensity

Leboe and Mondor (2008) demonstrated that participants will apply a change heuristic when making duration judgments. In this study we investigated whether participants would apply this same change heuristic when making judgments about the perceived intensity of a sound. In two experiments, participants were presented with two consecutive sounds on each of a series of trials and their task was to judge whether the second sound was louder or quieter than the first. In Experiment 1, participants were more likely to judge sounds that increased in frequency as louder in intensity than sounds that maintained a constant frequency. In Experiment 2, participants were more likely to judge sounds that either increased or decreased in frequency as louder in intensity than sounds that maintained a constant frequency. We interpret these results as evidence that reliance on a change heuristic leads to the illusion of increased intensity.

Knowledge used in duration judgments by elderly adults

Knowledge used in duration judgments by elderly adults

Encoding, storage and judgment of experienced frequency and duration

AbstractThis paper examines conditions that do or do not lead to accurate judgments of frequency (JOF) and judgments of duration (JOD). In three experiments, duration and frequency of visually presented stimuli are varied orthogonally in a within-subjects design. Experiment 1 reveals anasymmetricjudgment pattern. JOFs reflected actual presentation frequency quite accurately and were unbiased by exposure duration. Conversely, JODs were almost insensitive to actual exposure duration and were systematically biased by presentation frequency. We show, however, that a tendency towards asymmetricjudgment pattern can be obtained by manipulating encoding conditions. Sustaining attention during encoding (Experiment 2) or enhancing richness of the encoded stimuli (Experiment 3) increases judgment sensitivity in JOD and yields biases in both directions (JOF biased by exposure duration, JOD biased by presentation frequency). The implications of these findings for underlying memory mechanisms are discussed.

Temporal concepts and predicted duration judgments

The present research investigated whether certain conceptualizations of time influence the planning fallacy or the tendency to underestimate predicted task durations. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with one of three types of primes (video, linguistic, video + linguistic) that reflected either an ego or time motion perspective (i.e. an individual moving through time vs. time moving toward an individual). Afterwards, all participants predicted the amount of time required to sort and shelve a stack of journals before actually completing the task. The results showed that across all priming conditions, subjects in the ego motion condition underestimated to a greater extent than those in the time motion condition. Experiment 2 replicated this effect and also found that underestimations are reduced when the implied duration of the experimental session is short vs. long. As a set, these findings have relevant theoretical implications and suggest some potential de-biasing techniques.

How cognitive load affects duration judgments: A meta-analytic review

A meta-analysis of 117 experiments evaluated the effects of cognitive load on duration judgments. Cognitive load refers to information-processing (attentional or working-memory) demands. Six types of cognitive load were analyzed to resolve ongoing controversies and to test current duration judgment theories. Duration judgments depend on whether or not participants are informed in advance that they are needed: prospective paradigm (informed) versus retrospective paradigm (not informed). With higher cognitive load, the prospective duration judgment ratio (subjective duration to objective duration) decreases but the retrospective ratio increases. Thus, the duration judgment ratio differs depending on the paradigm and the specific type of cognitive load. As assessed by the coefficient of variation, relative variability of prospective, but not retrospective, judgments increases with cognitive load. The prospective findings support models emphasizing attentional resources, especially executive control. The retrospective findings support models emphasizing memory changes. Alternative theories do not fit with the meta-analytic findings and are rejected.

Differences in the neural basis of automatic auditory and visual time perception: ERP evidence from an across-modal delayed response oddball task

In our everyday lives, we need to process auditory and visual temporal information as efficiently as possible. Although automatic auditory time perception has been widely investigated using an index of the mismatch negativity (MMN), the neural basis of automatic visual time perception has been largely ignored. The present study investigated the automatic processing of auditory and visual time perception employing the cross-modal delayed response oddball paradigm. In the experimental condition, the standard stimulus was 200 ms and the deviant stimulus was 120 ms, which were exchanged in the control condition. Reaction time, accuracy, and event-related potential (ERP) data were measured when participants performed the duration discrimination task. The ERP results showed that the MMN, N2b, and P3 were elicited by an auditory deviant stimulus under the attention condition, while only the MMN was elicited under the inattention condition. The MMN was largest over the frontal and central sites, while the difference in MMN amplitude was not significant between under the attention and inattention condition. In contrast, the change-related positivity (CRP) and the visual mismatch negativity (vMMN) were elicited by the visual deviant stimulus under both the attention and inattention conditions. The CRP was largest over the occipito-temporal sites under the attention condition and over the fronto-central sites under the inattention condition. The difference in CRP amplitude was significant between the attention and inattention condition. The vMMN was largest over the parieto-occipital sites under the attention condition, and largest over the fronto-central sites under the inattention condition. The difference in vMMN amplitude was significant between the attention and inattention condition. Auditory MMN does not appear to be modulated by attention, whereas the visual CRP and the vMMN are modulated by attention. Therefore, the present study provides electrophysiological evidence for the existence of automatic visual time perception and supports an “attentional switch” hypothesis for a modality effect on duration judgments, such that auditory temporal information is processed relatively automatically, whereas visual temporal information processing requires controlled attention.

Modulations of Temporal Perception by Consciously and Unconsciously Perceived Stimuli

Temporal processing is of fundamental importance to the understanding of orders and durations of events in daily life. While recent research found that the perception of event durations is modulated by the visibility of perceived stimuli, it is still not known whether consciously and unconsciously perceived stimuli modulate temporal perception of a following stimulus in a similar vein. We investigated this using a temporal-comparison task that requires duration judgments of a standard stimulus and a probe. A prime prior to the standard stimulus reduced the subjective duration of the standard stimulus when observers were aware of the prime, and this effect changed with the temporal distance between the prime and standard. In contrast, a prime increased the subjective duration of the following standard stimulus when observers were unaware of the presence of the prime. Our findings indicate that a temporally neighbouring transient stimulus produces essentially different effects on temporal perception of following events when it is consciously and unconsciously perceived, leading to compression and expansion of subjective time, respectively.

Expertise makes the world slow down: Judgements of duration are influenced by domain knowledge

Experts often appear to perceive time differently from novices. The current study thus examined perceptions of time as a function of domain expertise. Specifically, individuals with high or low levels of knowledge of American football made judgements of duration for briefly presented words that were unrelated to football (e.g., rooster), football specific (e.g., touchdown), or ambiguous (e.g., huddle). Results showed that high-knowledge individuals judged football-specific words as having been presented for a longer duration than unrelated or ambiguous words. In contrast, low-knowledge participants exhibited no systematic differences in judgements of duration based on the type of word presented. These findings are discussed within a fluency attribution framework, which suggests that experts' fluent perception of domain-relevant stimuli leads to the subjective impression that time slows down in one's domain of expertise.

Visual determinants of a cross-modal illusion

Contrary to the predictions of established theory, Schutz and Lipscomb (2007) have shown that visual information can influence the perceived duration of concurrent sounds. In the present study, we deconstruct the visual component of their illusion, showing that (1) cross-modal influence depends on visible cues signaling an impact event (namely, a sudden change of direction concurrent with tone onset) and (2) the illusion is controlled primarily by the duration of post-impact motion. Other aspects of the post-impact motion--distance traveled, velocity, acceleration, and the rate of its change (i.e., its derivative, jerk)--play a minor role, if any. Together, these results demonstrate that visual event duration can influence the perception of auditory event duration, but only when stimulus cues are sufficient to give rise to the perception of a causal cross-modal relationship. This refined understanding of the illusion's visual aspects is helpful in comprehending why it contrasts so markedly with previous research on cross-modal integration, demonstrating that vision does not appreciably influence auditory judgments of event duration (Walker & Scott, 1981).

Contextual effects on number–time interaction

Time perception has long been known to be affected by numerical representations. Recent studies further demonstrate that when participants estimate the duration of Arabic numbers, number magnitude, though task-irrelevant, biases duration judgment to produce underestimation for smaller numbers and overestimation for larger numbers. Such effects were found in the present study to be significantly reduced when a weight unit gram was suffixed to the numbers rendering the mental magnitude differences between different numbers less distinctive. The effects were enhanced when a different unit kilogram was suffixed to the numbers enlarging the perceived magnitude differences between different numbers. The results indicate that effects of number magnitude on duration estimation should not be attributed to the mathematical differences between numbers but to how the numbers are perceived to differ from each other in magnitude in specific contexts when they denote concrete items. The results also provide new evidence for the theoretical proposal of a common generalized magnitude system and indicate that the system must be extended to include other action-oriented magnitudes, such as weight.

Brain Regions Involved with Internal Temporal Duration Judgment

Brain Regions Involved with Internal Temporal Duration Judgment

Sensorimotor states affect choice in the magnitude judgment of ambiguous durations

AbstractThe statistics of the environment seem to exert optimal influence on the organization of functions subserving decision making. In order to make decisions about ambiguous sensory information, predictive coding models suggest that brain generate a template against which to match observed sensory evidence. Here we challenge this notion providing evidence that stochastic choices about the magnitude judgment of visual duration are triggered by bottom-up sensorimotor information.

Time perception and its neuropsychological correlates in patients with schizophrenia and in healthy volunteers

Disordered time perception has been reported in schizophrenia. We investigated time perception dysfunction and its neuropsychological correlates in patients with schizophrenia. Participants comprised 38 patients and 38 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers who were compared in an auditory temporal bisection paradigm using two interval ranges (a 400/800 ms condition and a 1000/2000 ms condition). In the temporal bisection, subjects were required to categorise a probe duration as short or long, based upon the similarity with two reference durations. All subjects also completed a battery of neuropsychological tests measuring sustained attention, short- and long-term memory and executive function. In the 400/800 ms condition, patients judged durations significantly shorter than did control subjects. Patients also exhibited decreased temporal sensitivity in both conditions. We found in both groups a negative association between temporal sensitivity and sustained attention for the 400/800 ms condition, and between temporal sensitivity and long-term memory for the 1000/200 ms condition. In patients, short-term memory performance was negatively associated with duration judgement in both conditions, while executive dysfunction was correlated to a general performance deficit in the 400/800 ms condition. These findings suggest the possibility that time perception abnormalities in schizophrenia are part of neuropsychological dysfunction and are likely to adversely impact upon activity of daily living.

A Model of Waiting's Duration Judgment

A model describing the process of waiting's duration judgment is described and tested. The suggested model is based on attentional models of prospective duration judgment. It is assumed that in a waiting situation, an automatic process of prospective waiting judgment is activated, because while waiting both temporal relevance and temporal uncertainty are high. The degree to which attentional resources are allocated for prospective timing is determined by several factors like waiting expectations, social justice and the waiter's degree of impatience. 491 participants judged waiting's duration and degree of a waiter's impatience after reading a scenario in which a waiting situation was described. Sixteen scenarios in which waiting situational parameters were manipulated according to the suggested model, were presented. The results supported the hypothesized model of waiting's duration judgment.

Asymmetric cross-modal effects in time perception

It is common to judge the duration of an audiovisual event, and yet it remains controversial how the judgment of duration is affected by signals from other modalities. We used an oddball paradigm to examine the effect of sound on the judgment of visual duration and that of a visual object on the judgment of an auditory duration. In a series of standards and oddballs, the participants compared the duration of the oddballs to that of the standards. Results showed asymmetric cross-modal effects, supporting the auditory dominance hypothesis: a sound extends the perceived visual duration, whereas a visual object has no effect on perceived auditory duration. The possible mechanisms (pacemaker or mode switch) proposed in the Scalar Expectancy Theory [Gibbon, J., Church, R. M., & Meck, W. H. (1984). Scalar timing in memory. In J. Gibbon & L. Allan (Eds.), Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: Vol. 423. Timing and time perception (pp. 52–77). New York: New York Academy of Sciences] were examined using different standard durations. We conclude that sound increases the perceived visual duration by accelerating the pulse rate in the visual pacemaker.

Reaction time to judge the temporal inequality of digits numbers

AbstractSeveral studies had consistently lighted mechanisms about the relation between spatial and numerical cognition; parallel to this, a separate research line begin to document similar relationships for the representation of time and quantity as well. However there are still few studies that explore cognitive mechanisms subserving this relation. Starting from the evidence of the SNARC effect (Dehaene et al., 1993), here we investigate about the presence of similar effect in the processing of temporal and numerical information. We studied the effects of numerical exposure when participants are asked to perform a visual detection task in which temporal information is explicitly or implicitly conveyed. The main result shows that, during explicit timing, low digits exposure improve reaction time in the judgment of shorter duration whereas big digits exposure improve reaction time in judgment of longer duration. No interaction between temporal and numerical information is documented when participants perform implicit timing task. Results suggest a role quantity exposure for timing task-dependent attentional orientation.

Stimulus dynamics and temporal discrimination: Implications for pacemakers.

The purpose of the present study was to observe the functional relationship between stimulus dynamics and stimulus duration judgments in humans. Stimulus duration was defined as the length of time that a spinning sphere appeared on a computer screen. Stimulus dynamics were defined by how quickly the sphere rotated on its y-axis. Using a logarithmic scale, a psychophysical bisection task was used to divide stimulus durations into two categories, short and long. Across three experiments, participants' duration judgments were longer the faster the sphere was rotated. This effect was observed over both a long and short temporal scale and over a wide range of stimulus dynamics despite the fact that the reinforcement contingencies penalized participants for this effect. The results are discussed in terms of perceived change as the possible basis of temporal duration estimation. This hypothesis was investigated through applications of the leading quantitative models of temporal discrimination to the present data.

The relationship between the feeling of well-being and the subjective time by forgetting of a negative memory

We examined the relationship between the feeling of well-being and the duration judgments by remembering of a negative (earthquake) and non negative (social) memories for 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s elderly groups. They were asked to produce the subjective time for each event and fill out the questionnaire of feeling of well-being. The results showed that female participants in 70s, 80s elderly groups decreased the subjective time of the negative event. Moreover, as feeling of well-being declined, the subjective time of the negative event were also decreased. The results suggest that less subjective time of the negative events may lead to less forgetting of them and associate with the present negative activities and imagining negative future happenings.

Perceived range, perceived velocity, and perceived duration of the body rotating in the frontal plane

We investigated perceived range, perceived velocity, and perceived duration of the body rotating in the frontal plane (in roll). Specifically, to examine how shear to the otoliths in the inner ears and tactile pressure to the trunk affect judgments of range and velocity, in two experiments, we manipulated rotating range (30 degrees-160 degrees), rotating velocity (1.8 degrees/sec to 9.6 degrees/sec), mean tilt of the body (-60 degrees, 0 degrees, and 60 degrees), and exposure to the visual vertical. Thirty-three normal or blindfolded participants made verbal judgments of range, velocity, and duration for each combination of these factors. The exponents of the power functions fitted to these judgments were, as a first approximation, .94, .61, and .84 for range, velocity, and duration, respectively, and perceived velocity was proportional to the ratio of perceived range to perceived duration (r = .91). These results suggest that the vestibular and somatosensory inputs are effective on judgments of range, but less so on judgments of velocity, and that perceived velocity may be determined as a ratio of perceived range to perceived duration. In addition, we found that (1) when the range the body has traveled is constant, the perceived range increases as the objective velocity decreases (proprioceptive tau effect); (2) self-motion through the tilted roll sometimes enlarges perceived range and perceived duration but reduces perceived velocity; and (3) the exposure to the visual vertical reduces variability of judgments for range and velocity and also reduces perceived range and perceived velocity of self-motion within a small range through the vertical roll.

Making judgments of duration: Effects of instruction and memory capacity

Undergraduate students at two universities, designated as Groups A and B, participated in this study. The Mean scores on a visual memory span test and a visual working memory test of Group A were significantly higher than those in Group B. Participants individually watched a CRT display showing two cars that were moving in the same direction on two parallel tracks for various durations and distances. They were asked to identify the car that had traveled for the longer duration and to explain the reasons for their decision. Then, they completed an instructional booklet that taught about planning to make judgments of duration for movement. Finally, they did the duration judgment tasks for the car's movements again. The following are the main results. (a) The number of undergraduates who answered correctly increased after their learning experience. (b) The rates of correct responses were significantly related to the memory test scores. Furthermore, the data suggested that larger memory capacity could compensate for poorer planning. (c) The two groups differed in strategies for the duration judgment tasks.