Models Of Time Perception Research Articles

Using Case Forms for Expressing Temporal Relations in Modern Turkish Language

Many languages, including modern Turkish, employ lexemes with spatial meaning to express temporal relations. However, the Turkish language stands out for its use of case forms of nouns both to describe the spatial position and movement of objects and to establish the temporal reference of actions and events. These differences are systemic, suggest that native Turkish speakers perceive spatial and temporal phenomena in a unique way, and determine the historical change in their models of time perception. They challenge the belief that spatial relations prevail over temporal ones in the perception of the surrounding world by peoples with nomadic roots but highlight the necessity of considering materials from other Turkic languages. The results obtained show that facts from different linguistic levels should be involved to analyze how temporal relations are conveyed.

Reversed Effect of Eccentricity: Perceived Duration of Peripherally Presented Stimuli Depends on Time Span

Abstract The perceived duration of stimuli presented in the visual periphery decreases with increasing eccentricity for brief durations. However, studies using different experimental methods or longer durations have reported inconsistent results. The present study aims to systematically explore the impact of stimulus eccentricity on perceived duration across various duration ranges. In three experiments employing the temporal bisection task, participants categorised the duration of stimuli presented at 3° or 9° of eccentricity as rather short or long, referred to two anchor durations previously learned. Stimulus durations varied between experiments and included short durations of 20–220 ms (Experiment 1), long durations of 400–1600 ms (Experiment 2), and intermediate durations of 160–660 ms (Experiment 3). For the short durations of Experiment 1, the results again replicated the decrease in perceived duration with increasing eccentricity. Interestingly, for the long durations, the effect was reversed, while subjective duration did not differ significantly between eccentricities for the intermediate durations. We discuss the findings with respect to prominent models of time perception, considering potential differences in attentional processing of short and long durations.

Time distortion for short-form video users

Time distortion occurs when individuals exhibit either overestimation or underestimation of the duration of events or activities. Previous studies of the relations between media use and time distortion have mainly focused on video games or social media. Given the widespread use and unique characteristics of short-form videos, we aimed to explore the effects of short-form video use on time distortion through two empirical studies. In Study 1, we conducted a three-phase survey among 111 college students consisting of demographic information, subjectively estimated and objectively recorded daily short-form video use, and a general unrelated survey task. Students were then asked how much time they spent on the survey task. The results showed that short-form video use frequency significantly positively predicted the degree of overestimation of both daily short-form video use and time spent on the general survey task. In Study 2, we assigned 62 college students to one of two priming activities (15 min of TikTok or reading) and compared their duration perceptions of the 15-min priming activity and of a subsequent 15-min general academic task. The results showed that the TikTok group significantly overestimated the duration of both the priming activity and the subsequent academic task, and their frequency of daily short-form video use significantly positively predicted their degree of overestimation. However, the reading group demonstrated relatively accurate duration estimation with no time distortion. Our findings extend the cognitive models of time perception to the field of short-form video use and provide practical implications for intervention of short-form video overuse.

A Biologically Inspired Computational Model of Time Perception

A Biologically Inspired Computational Model of Time Perception

How Does Emotion Influence Time Perception? A Review of Evidence Linking Emotional Motivation and Time Processing.

Emotions have a strong influence on how we experience time passing. The body of research investigating the role of emotion on time perception has steadily increased in the past twenty years. Several affective mechanisms have been proposed to influence the passing of time. The current review focuses on how three dimensions of affect—valence, arousal, and motivation—are related to time perception. The valence-based model of time perception predicts that all positive affects hasten the perception of time and all negative affects slow the perception of time. Arousal is thought to intensify the effects of the influence of valence on time perception. In much of this past work, motivational direction has been confounded with valence, whereas motivational intensity has been confounded with arousal. Research investigating the role of motivation in time perception has found that approach-motivated positive and negative affects hasten the perception of time, but withdrawal-motivated affects slow the perception of time. Perceiving time passing quickly while experiencing approach-motivated states may provide significant advantages related to goal pursuit. In contrast, perceiving time passing slowly while experiencing withdrawal-motivated states may increase avoidance actions. Below, we review evidence supporting that approach motivation hastens the passing of time, whereas withdrawal motivation slows the passing of time. These results suggest that motivational direction, rather than affective valence and arousal, drive emotional changes in time perception.

Linear vector models of time perception account for saccade and stimulus novelty interactions

Various models (e.g., scalar, state-dependent network, and vector models) have been proposed to explain the global aspects of time perception, but they have not been tested against specific visual phenomena like perisaccadic time compression and novel stimulus time dilation. Here, in two separate experiments (N = 31), we tested how the perceived duration of a novel stimulus is influenced by 1) a simultaneous saccade, in combination with 2) a prior series of repeated stimuli in human participants. This yielded a novel behavioral interaction: pre-saccadic stimulus repetition neutralizes perisaccadic time compression. We then tested these results against simulations of the above models. Our data yielded low correlations against scalar model simulations, high but non-specific correlations for our feedforward neural network, and correlations that were both high and specific for a vector model based on identity of objective and subjective time. These results demonstrate the power of global time perception models in explaining disparate empirical phenomena and suggest that subjective time has a similar essence to time's physical vector.

When long appears short: Effects of auditory distraction on event-related potential correlates of time perception.

Attentional models of time perception assume that the perceived duration of a stimulus depends on the extent to which attentional resources are allocated to its temporal information. Here, we studied the effects of auditory distraction on time perception, using a combined attentional-distraction duration-discrimination paradigm. Participants were confronted with a random sequence of long and short tone stimuli, most of which having a uniform (standard) pitch and only a few a different (deviant) pitch. As observed in previous studies, pitch-deviant tones impaired the discrimination of tone duration and triggered a sequence of event-related potentials (ERPs) reflecting a cycle of deviance detection, involuntary attentional distraction and reorientation (MMN, P3a, RON). Contrasting ERPs of short and long tone durations revealed that long tones elicited a more pronounced fronto-central contingent negative variation (CNV) in the time interval after the expected offset of the short tone as well as a more prominent centro-parietal late positive complex (LPC). Relative to standard-pitch tones, deviant-pitch tones especially impaired the correct discrimination of long tones, which was associated with a reduction of the CNV and LPC. These results are interpreted within the theoretical framework of resource-based models of time perception, in which involuntary distraction due to a deviant event led to a withdrawal of attentional resources from the processing of time information.

Music and Time Perception in Audiovisuals: Arousing Soundtracks Lead to Time Overestimation No Matter Their Emotional Valence

One of the most tangible effects of music is its ability to alter our perception of time. Research on waiting times and time estimation of musical excerpts has attested its veritable effects. Nevertheless, there exist contrasting results regarding several musical features’ influence on time perception. When considering emotional valence and arousal, there is some evidence that positive affect music fosters time underestimation, whereas negative affect music leads to overestimation. Instead, contrasting results exist with regard to arousal. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, a systematic investigation has not yet been conducted within the audiovisual domain, wherein music might improve the interaction between the user and the audiovisual media by shaping the recipients’ time perception. Through the current between-subjects online experiment (n = 565), we sought to analyze the influence that four soundtracks (happy, relaxing, sad, scary), differing in valence and arousal, exerted on the time estimation of a short movie, as compared to a no-music condition. The results reveal that (1) the mere presence of music led to time overestimation as opposed to the absence of music, (2) the soundtracks that were perceived as more arousing (i.e., happy and scary) led to time overestimation. The findings are discussed in terms of psychological and phenomenological models of time perception.

A Psychophysical Ordered Response Model of Time Perception and Service Quality: Application to Level of Service Analysis at Toll Plazas

This work attempts to bring to the fore the importance of explicitly modelling how time (or other physical quantities like distance) is perceived in the analyses of phenomena or behaviors where time (or other physical quantities) plays an important role. To do so the application area of level of service at toll plazas is chosen. Principles arising out of past work on the psychophysics of time perception are seamlessly incorporated into a novel unified model that accounts for both bias and random errors in perception. Multiplicative error terms arise naturally in this model. Results indicate that it is important to include both bias and random errors while modelling perception as ignoring the bias leads to high variance in the error term. Interestingly the pattern of bias in perception of time seems to remain steady across various waiting line situations from disparate contexts. Finally, the proposed model creates a framework that can be used to determine how time durations are perceived by humans when responses about perceptions are provided through categories like very small, small, etc. whose definitions are also concurrently identified. Such a framework can be used to study a wide range of situations both in transportation (such as route choice, mode choice, gap acceptance, and overtaking) and elsewhere. From a narrower perspective, this methodology can be used, as has been done here, to (i) determine level of service category definitions in terms of observable and “engineerable” variables (actual or measured delay faced by vehicles) even though it is the perceived value (a latent variable) that determines travelers’ responses on the quality of service, and (ii) identify parameters that define the systematic bias and randomness in perceptions.

Theory on The Vision-based Mechanisms of Subjective Time Within The Context of The Neural and Psychological Models of Time Perception

Temporal processing is crucial for interval, duration and motion discrimination, as well as the ability to order events. Humans process temporal information over a large scale ranging from microseconds to daily circadian rhythms. The basic questions in the time perception literature include whether timing is centralized or distributed in the brain and whether different time scales or modalities (such as sensory or motor) are processed by different neural mechanisms. In this review, focus will be on visual timing in the millisecond range and the underlying temporal mechanisms.The classical model of a supramodal centralised clock, in which scaling between real and apparent time is accomplished by a change in the arousal level, has been challenged by our evidence, following Johnston et al. (2006), that the apparent duration can be manipulated in a local region of visual field by adaptation to motion or flicker and that the effects of temporal frequency adaptation on perceived duration and perceived temporal frequency are dissociable. The relationship between time, motion and space supports the idea that time is an attribute of a visual stimulus like any other low level features such as color or motion, which we suggest may imply a time pathway in the brain. Keywords: Visual perception, time perception, visual brain

Exploring the Role of Overt Attention Allocation During Time Estimation: an Eye Movement Study

Abstract Cognitive models of time perception propose that perceived duration is influenced by how quickly attention is orientated to the to-be-timed event and how consistently attention is sustained on the to-be-timed event throughout its presentation. Insufficient attention to time is therefore associated with shorter more variable representations of duration. However, these models do not specify whether covert or overt attentional systems are primarily responsible for paying attention during timing. The current study sought to establish the role of overt attention allocation during timing by examining the relationship between eye movements and perceived duration. Participants completed a modified spatial cueing task in which they estimated the duration of short (1400 ms) and long (2100 ms) validly and invalidly cued targets. Time to first fixation and dwell time were recorded throughout. The results showed no significant relationship between overt sustained attention and mean duration estimates. Reductions in overt sustained attention were however associated with increases in estimate variability for the long target duration. Overt attention orientation latency was predictive of the difference in the perceived duration of validly and invalidly cued short targets but not long ones. The results suggest that overt attention allocation may have limited impact on perceived duration.

Time Perception: A Review on Psychological, Computational, and Robotic Models

Animals exploit time to survive in the world. Temporal information is required for higher level cognitive abilities, such as planning, decision making, communication, and effective cooperation. Since time is an inseparable part of cognition, there is a growing interest in the artificial intelligence approach to subjective time, which has a possibility of advancing the field. The current survey study aims to provide researchers with an interdisciplinary perspective on time perception. First, we introduce a brief background from the psychology and neuroscience literature, covering the characteristics and models of time perception and related abilities. Second, we summarize the emergent computational and robotic models of time perception. A general overview to the literature reveals that a substantial amount of timing models are based on a dedicated time processing like the emergence of a clock-like mechanism from the neural network dynamics and reveals a relationship between the embodiment and time perception. We also notice that most models of timing are developed for either sensory timing (i.e., ability to assess an interval) or motor timing (i.e., ability to reproduce an interval). The number of timing models capable of retrospective timing, which is the ability to track time without paying attention, is insufficient. In this light, we discuss the possible research directions to promote the interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of time perception.

The arousing and attentional effects of facial expressions on time perception: A systematic review

Although time perception has mainly been explored through the prospective paradigm, it appears that emotional stimuli lead to an overestimation of time either through an arousing or an attentional effect. Amongst the emotional stimuli, emotional expressions are of inlerest due to their social importance. The purpose of this paper was to systematically review research carried out into emotional expression interference on time perception. A systematic literature review of 13 peer-reviewed papers with an empirical design that tested healthy participants was conducted on studies exploring both time perception and emotional expression. Furthermore, the papers were only included if they were written in English language and dated from at least the year 1964 (i.e. following Treisman’s model of time perception in 1963). Findings showed a congruent overestimation when participants were exposed to emotional faces, especially when they expressed anger. This interaction was mediated by the dynamism of the stimuli used (i.e. there was a stronger effect if the expressions were animated), the model gaze and direction (i.e. nullified effect when the face was directed away from the participant), the embodiment effect (i.e. nullified effect when participants could not mimic the expression), and participant age (i.e. stronger effect of positive expressions amongst elderly participants). In conclusion, it emerged that two underlying mechanisms explain the overestimation observed when confronted with emotional expressions – attention and arousal. Although these two mechanisms appear to impair time perception independently, the studies on the stimuli dynamism indicated a potential conjoint effect of these mechanisms.

Subjective Passage of Time during the Pandemic: Routine, Boredom, and Memory

Abstract Over the weeks of social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic, people typically reported that time had passed comparably quickly. Although time might have passed slowly during moments of anxiety and boredom for some, many felt a speeding up of the passing days and weeks. Here I attempt to explain the experience of time during the pandemic with cognitive models of time perception as related to the present moment (prospective time) and in hindsight (retrospective time). Retrospective judgments of time intervals rely on memory traces. The more contextual changes experienced during a given time interval, the longer duration is judged when looking back over past time intervals. More routine activities, as experienced by many during the pandemic, even when under time pressure, lead to fewer memorable events stored in autobiographical memory. This creates the impression that time has passed considerably more quickly.

Duration Estimation of Angry and Neutral Faces: Behavioral and Electrophysiological Correlates

Abstract Emotional stimuli like emotional faces have been frequently shown to be temporally overestimated compared to neutral ones. This effect has been commonly explained by induced arousal caused by emotional processing leading to the acceleration of an inner-clock-like pacemaker. However, there are some studies reporting contradictory effects and others point to relevant moderating variables. Given this controversy, we aimed at investigating the processes underlying the temporal overestimation of emotional faces by combining behavioral and electrophysiological correlates in a temporal bisection task. We assessed duration estimation of angry and neutral faces using anchor durations of 400 ms and 1600 ms while recording event-related potentials. Subjective ratings and the early posterior negativity confirmed encoding and processing of stimuli’s emotionality. However, temporal ratings did not differ between angry and neutral faces. In line with this behavioral result, the Contingent Negative Variation (CNV), an electrophysiological index of temporal accumulation, was not modulated by the faces’ emotionality. Duration estimates, i.e., short or long responses toward stimuli of ambiguous durations of 1000 ms, were nevertheless associated with a differential CNV amplitude. Interestingly, CNV modulation was already observed at 600–700 ms after stimulus onset, i.e., long before stimulus offset. The results are discussed in light of the information-processing model of time perception as well as regarding possible factors of the experimental setup moderating temporal overestimation of emotional stimuli. In sum, combining behavioral and electrophysiological measures seems promising to more clearly understand the complex processes leading to the illusion of temporal lengthening of emotional faces.

Group congruent labelling leads to subjective expansion of time.

Given top-down effects on perception, we examined the effect of group identity on time perception. We investigated whether the duration of an ambiguous sound clip is processed differently as a function of group congruent or incongruent source attribution. Group congruent (in-group) and incongruent (out-group) context was created by attributing the source of an identical ambiguous sound clip to Hindu or Muslim festivals. Participants from both the religious groups (Hindus and Muslims) prospectively listened to a 20 s long ambiguous sound clip and reproduced its duration (experiment 1a). Both groups reproduced significantly longer durations when the sound clip was associated with the group congruent compared to the group incongruent festival contexts. The two groups did not differ significantly in reproduced duration when the sound attributed to a non-religious common (busy city street) context (experiment 1b). With multiple durations (1, 5, 10 and 20 s), longer durations were reproduced for group congruent labelling at objectively longer durations (experiment 2). According to the internal clock model of time perception, the significant slope effect indicated that the group congruent context influences temporal experience through changes in pacemaker frequency. We argue that the duration appearing relevant to one's own group is processed differently possibly owing to differences in attentional deployment, which influences the pacemaker frequency.

Red visual stimulation in the Ganzfeld leads to a relative overestimation of duration compared to green.

A Ganzfeld is a homogenized visual and auditory perceptual field which can induce altered states of consciousness (ASC; Metzger, 1929; Schmidt & Prein, 2019). Using a balanced intrasubject design, we compared participants' experience during two differently colored (red, green) 25-min Ganzfeld sessions with brown noise as acoustic stimulation. Participants were exposed to the colored visual field through commercially available goggles and to brown noise over headphones. We selected 67 participants with some prior meditation experience to increase the probability that they would engage meaningfully with this specifically restricted stimulus situation. We tested the functional components of the standard cognitive model of time perception (Zakay & Block, 1997) in a path analysis for direct (red vs. green light) and indirect effects (arousal, attention) on subjective duration and perceived passage of time. Subjective arousal and valence states were measured using the Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM). The amount of attention directed to time and the perceived passage of time were rated with standard visual analog scales (VAS). Participants also estimated the duration of each Ganzfeld exposure. The session with the red visual field lasted significantly longer than did the green session (μred = 23.1 min; μgreen = 19.8 min). After the green session, participants rated their arousal level to have significantly decreased; after the red session, individuals on average felt emotionally less positive. Multiple path analyses revealed that the effect of color on estimated duration is completely mediated through higher arousal levels during the red Ganzfeld session. In turn, the higher arousal level generates a longer subjective estimate of duration. For induction of relaxation in studies probing altered states of consciousness employing the Ganzfeld technique, we recommend using the green light.

Perceived Control in the Lab and in Daily Life Impact Emotion-Induced Temporal Distortions

Abstract Prior research has shown that the arousal and valence dimensions of emotional images distort the perceived duration of those images. Further, these time distortions are eliminated when observers feel in control over the events in the experiment. The present study had two goals. The first goal was to replicate the effect of perceived control on time perception, using a design where perceived control was manipulated within subjects. The second goal was to evaluate whether the experimental manipulation of perceived control was related to feelings of control experienced in daily life, as assessed by the Desire for Control and Locus of Control scales. In all, 109 participants completed a time bisection task and evaluated the same emotional images under low and high levels of perceived control over the events. The results replicated the finding that the temporal distortions by emotional events observed under low perceived control were eliminated under high perceived control. Furthermore, individual differences regarding control in daily life modulated the effects of perceived control on time perception. Individuals with a high desire for control and a high degree of internality seemed to have an enhanced experience of positive events. These same individuals also benefited more from the experimental control manipulation, speeding the passage of time and perhaps making the task more enjoyable. The results are discussed in the context of current models of time perception.

Weber's Law and the Scalar Property of Timing: A Test of Canine Timing.

Simple SummaryUnderstanding the perceptual abilities of companion animals such as dogs adds to our understanding of the cognitive abilities of non-human animals. This study assessed the time perception abilities of dogs. In this study, dogs were required to identify whether the duration of a light was of a short or long duration by pressing a response lever. Dogs were able to correctly classify the durations as short or long. When given durations that were intermediate of the original short and long stimuli, their performance approached chance levels near the middle of the short and long durations. The performance of dogs on this task was similar to other animals, such as rats, pigeons and possums. Aspects of their performance also challenged some long-held assumptions of existing models of time perception. Research that assesses the cognitive abilities of dogs remains a fertile area of research that will improve our understanding about their abilities and limits. Domestic dogs completed a temporal bisection procedure that required a response to one lever following a light stimulus of short duration and to another lever following a light stimulus of a longer duration. The short and long durations across the four conditions were (0.5–2.0 s, 1.0–4.0 s, 2.0–8.0 s, and 4.0–16.0 s). Durations that were intermediate, the training durations, and the training durations, were presented during generalization tests. The dogs bisected the intervals near the geometric mean of the short and long-stimulus pair. Weber fractions were not constant when plotted as a function of time: A U-shaped function described them. These results replicate the findings of previous research reporting points of subjective equality falling close to the geometric mean and also confirm recent reports of systematic departures from Weber’s law.

Time distortion under threat: Sympathetic arousal predicts time distortion only in the context of negative, highly arousing stimuli.

Theoretical models of time perception suggest a simple bottom-up relationship between physiological arousal and perceived duration. Increases in physiological arousal lengthen the perceived duration of events whereas decreases in physiological arousal reduce them. Whilst this relationship has been demonstrated for highly arousing negatively valenced stimuli, it has not been demonstrated for other classes of distorting stimuli (e.g. positively valenced or low arousal stimuli). The current study tested the effect of valence (positive and negative) and arousal level (high and low) on the relationship between physiological arousal and perceived duration. Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) activity was measured during a verbal estimation task in which participants judged the duration of high and low arousal, positive, negative and neutrally valenced IAPS images. SNS and PSNS activity were indexed by measuring Pre-Ejection Period (PEP) and High Frequency Heart-rate Variability (HF-HRV) respectively. SNS reactivity was predicative of perceived duration, but only for high arousal negatively valenced stimuli, with decreases in PEP being associated with longer duration estimates. SNS and PSNS activity was not predictive of perceived duration for the low arousal negative stimuli or the low and high arousal positive stimuli. We therefore propose a new model suggesting that emotional distortions to time result from a combination of bottom-up (physiological arousal) and top-down (threat detection) factors.