Retrospective Time Estimation Research Articles

İleriye Yönelik ve Geriye Dönük Zamanlama Süreçleri: Teoriler ve Yöntemler

We experience a flow of time in everyday life. However, according to modern physics, time does not flow. In the psychology and neuroscience literature, different models and explanations have been made to try to answer the question of what time is besides an illusion of flow and to figure out how time is perceived. Different methods have also been used to learn how time is handled and to test how accurate these models are. People process time in two ways: implicitly and explicitly. We are talking about explicit timing when estimating the time interval length. Another distinction, according to the measurement method of time perception paradigms, is between prospective and retrospective time estimations. Although there are theorists who claim that these two methods involve similar cognitive processes, it is thought that different cognitive processes serve to experience and remember a time, depending on whether time perception is measured by the prospective or retrospective time estimation methods. This brings to mind different method-dependent constraints and advantages. As with any other kind of perception study, the method chosen for time perception research should fit the question being asked. This review presents a selective review of time perception studies to make it easier for a researcher planning to study time perception to choose the appropriate method for the study question. The time perception processes and related evidence were examined using prospective and retrospective time estimation measurement methods. But it's important to note that the time perception models and methods talked about in this review are only a small part of a very large field.

Multidimensional assessment of time perception along the continuum of Alzheimer’s Disease and evidence of alterations in subjective cognitive decline

Timing alterations occur in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), even in early stages (mild cognitive impairment, MCI). Moreover, a stage named subjective cognitive decline (SCD), in which individuals perceive a change in cognitive performance not revealed by neuropsychological tests, has been identified as a preclinical phase of AD. However, no study to date has investigated different dimensions of time processing along the continuum from physiological to pathological aging, and whether timing alterations occur in SCD. Here a sample of participants with SCD, MCI, AD and healthy controls (HC) performed tasks assessing prospective duration estimation, production, reproduction, implicit temporal learning in conditions dependent from external cues (externally-cued learning, ECL) or independent from external cues (internally-based learning, IBL), retrospective duration estimation, the subjective experience of time and the temporal collocation of events. AD patients performed worse than HC and SCD in prospective timing, and in collocating events in time. The subjective experience of time did not differ between groups. Concerning temporal learning, AD performed worse in ECL than in IBL, whereas SCD performed worse in IBL than in ECL. SCD, MCI and AD patients all showed errors greater than HC in retrospective duration estimation. Results point to implicit temporal learning in externally-cued conditions and retrospective time estimation as possible early markers of cognitive decline.

How state anxious individuals estimate time retrospectively: The mediating effect of memory bias.

The purpose of the present study is to explore how anxious individuals estimate time retrospectively, which may fill in a research gap of time estimation literature. Two experiments were conducted to investigate the mediating effect of memory bias on the relationship between state anxiety and retrospective time estimation. In Experiment 1, state anxiety (high and low) was manipulated by a standardized induction procedure, and retrospective time estimation was tested by the verbal estimation task. In Experiment 2, memory bias was measured by the free-recall task for the data analysis of the mediating role of memory bias in the relationship of state anxiety and retrospective time estimation. In a Supplementary Experiment, different methods were used to verify the robustness of the results in Experiment 2. The results suggest that (1) high state anxious individuals estimate a retrospective duration to be longer than low state anxious individuals, and (2) memory bias mediates the influence of state anxiety on retrospective time estimation. Our findings contribute to a deep understanding of the time distortion consequence of anxiety from a new perspective and offers important insight into the mechanism underlying the effect anxiety has on retrospective time estimation.

The impact of cognitive load on prospective and retrospective time estimates at long durations: An investigation using a visual and memory search paradigm.

As human beings, we are bound by time. It is essential for daily functioning, and yet our ability to keep track of time is influenced by a myriad of factors (Block & Zakay, 1997, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 4[2], 184-197). First and foremost, time estimation has been found to depend on whether participants estimate the time prospectively or retrospectively (Hicks et al., 1976, The American Journal of Psychology, 89[4], 719-730). However, there is a paucity of research investigating differences between these two conditions in tasks over two minutes (Tobin et al., 2010, PLOS ONE, 5[2], Article e9271). Moreover, estimates have also been shown to be influenced by cognitive load. We thus investigated participants' ability to keep track of time during a visual and memory search task and manipulated its difficulty and duration. Two hundred and ninety-two participants performed the task for 8 or 58 minutes. Participants in the prospective time judgment condition were forewarned of an impending time estimate, whereas participants in the retrospective condition were not. Cognitive load was manipulated and assessed by altering the task's difficulty. The results revealed a higher overestimation of time in the prospective condition compared with the retrospective condition. However, this was found in the 8-minute task only. Overall, participants significantly overestimated the duration of the 8-minute task and underestimated the 58-minute task. Finally, cognitive load had no effect on participants' time estimates. Thus, the well-known cross-over interaction between cognitive load and estimation paradigm (Block et al., 2010, Acta Psychologica, 134[3], 330-343) did not extend to a longer duration in this experiment.

Prospective and Retrospective Verbal Time Estimationin Children with ADHD.

There is increasing evidence that timing deficits represent a primary cause of key symptoms in ADHD. However, results in experiments on timing may vary with different methods of assessing timing competencies. The present study directly compared two central paradigms, namely, prospective and retrospective time estimation in children with (n = 30) and without (n = 29) ADHD. In both conditions, durations were estimated considerably longer by children with ADHD. Children with ADHD significantly overestimated the real duration of the task compared to children without ADHD in the retrospective but not in the prospective condition. In general, prospective estimates were more accurate than retrospective ones. The findings corroborate the essential role that timing deficits and a faster internal clock play in ADHD. Furthermore, the results demonstrate the importance of careful differentiation between prospective and retrospective time estimation.

A New Perspective on the Relationships between Individual Factors and Time Estimates

Despite its abundant literature, the timing research field does not offer any comparison of prospective and retrospective time estimates emerging from a within-subjects design. Likewise, the relationships between these estimates and individual factors, within such a design, have never been investigated. The present study addresses these issues. Ninety-two participants retrospectively and prospectively estimated the duration of an Internet surfing task and completed several questionnaires (e.g., personality). Results showed that (a) prospective time estimates were longer than retrospective ones for only 58% of the participants and (b) the relationships between individual factors and time estimates differed as a function of the fact that a participant had or not a longer prospective time estimate. The discussion explains the methodological, theoretical and practical impacts emerging from this new method for studying the relationships between individual factors and time estimates in daily life-like situations.

Setting the beat of an internal clock: Effects of dexamphetamine on different interval ranges of temporal processing in healthy volunteers

Drug studies are powerful models to investigate the neuropharmacological mechanisms underlying temporal processing in humans. This study administered dexamphetamine to 24 healthy volunteers to investigate time perception at different time scales, along with contributions from working memory. Healthy volunteers were administered 0.45 mg/kg dexamphetamine or placebo in a double-blind, crossover, placebo-controlled design. Time perception was assessed using three experimental tasks: a time-discrimination task, which asked participants to determine whether a comparison interval (1200 ± 0, 50, 100, 150, 200 ms) was shorter or longer than a standard interval (1200 ms); a retrospective time estimation task, which required participants to verbally estimate time intervals (10, 30, 60, 90 and 120 s) retrospectively; and a prospective time-production task, where participants were required to prospectively monitor the passing of time (10, 30, 60, 90 and 120 s). Working memory was assessed with the backwards digit span. On the discrimination task, there was a change in the proportion of long-to-short responses and reaction times in the dexamphetamine condition (but no association with working memory), consistent with an increase in the speed of an internal pacemaker, and an overestimation of durations in the timing of shorter intervals. There was an interaction between dexamphetamine, working memory, and performance on the estimation and production tasks, whereby increasing digit span scores were associated with decreasing interval estimates and increased produced intervals in the placebo condition, but were associated with increased interval estimates and decreased produced intervals after dexamphetamine administration. These findings indicate that the dexamphetamine-induced increase in the speed of the internal pacemaker was modulated by the basal working memory capacity of each participant. These findings in healthy humans have important implications for the role of dopamine, and its contributions to timing deficits, in models of psychiatric disorders.

Field dependence-independence differently affects retrospective time estimation and flicker-induced time dilation.

Field dependence-independence (FDI) is a stable dimension of individual functioning, transversal to different cognitive domains. While the role of some individual variables in time perception has received considerable attention, it is not clear whether and how FDI influences timing abilities. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that FDI differently affects timing performance depending on whether the task requires cognitive restructuring. Participants were assessed for FDI using the embedded figures test (EFT). They performed a prospective timing task, reproducing the duration of a flickering stimulus, and a retrospective timing task, estimating the duration of the task. We expected performance of field-dependent (FD) and field-independent (FI) individuals not to differ in the prospective task, since restructuring of task material is not needed to reproduce the stimulus duration. Conversely, we predicted that FI individuals should be more accurate than FD ones in the retrospective condition, involving restructuring skills. Results show that while both FD and FI individuals under-reproduced the stimulus duration in the prospective task, only FD participants significantly underestimated the duration of the timing task in the retrospective condition. These results suggest that differences across FD and FI individuals are apparent in timing only when the task requires high-level cognitive processing; conversely, these differences do not affect basic sensory processing.

Unpacking, summing and anchoring in retrospective time estimation

We examined whether or not interventions that have been used to try to influence predictions of future task duration – unpacking, summing and anchoring – had a similar effect on retrospective estimations of duration. In three studies, participants experienced a number of short stimuli, such as watching videos, before estimating the duration for each of the stimuli and the overall duration. The first estimation given served as an anchor for all following estimates. If the first estimation was highly biased in one direction, then subsequent estimates were more likely to also be biased in the same direction. Additionally, separate estimates for a number of individual tasks differed from the estimates for all of the tasks combined. This incongruity happened even though all estimates were given in sequence. Overall, results indicated that memories of past task duration could be influenced by the manner in which they were elicited.

Temporal Aspects of Memory: A Comparison of Memory Performance, Processing Speed and Time Estimation Between Young and Older Adults.

Cognitive abilities are often reported to decline across the lifespan, particularly when assessed with working memory (WM) measures such as the auditory backward digit span and complex N-back tasks. However, some debate still exists regarding which aspects of cognition are most susceptible to the aging process and which may remain intact. Additionally, time estimation, though a complex psychological dimension, is often studied in relative isolation and is particularly neglected in traditional studies of WM, with little research from the viewpoint of retrospective temporal estimation. In particular, research seldom considers whether the ability to accurately estimate time retrospectively, is correlated with performance on traditional memory and processing speed measures in healthy populations. Thus, we chose to investigate performance of comparably educated young and older adult groups on both classical memory tasks including auditory and visual digit spans, N-back, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)-based measures of processing speed (i.e., Symbol Search [SS] and Coding [Cod]) and a temporal measure of WM with a focus on retrospective time estimation. Our sample included 66 university students (58 F, 8 M) between the ages of 18–29, and 33 university-educated healthy older adults (25 F, 8 M) between the ages of 60–81. Results indicated that older adults performed significantly worse on auditory but not the visual digit span tasks, as well as on both the SS and Cod, though performed equally well on the N = 1 back task. Results also showed that retrospective time estimation was not significantly different between young and older adults, with both groups substantially underestimating duration of a simple task. Retrospective time estimation was not significantly correlated to any memory or processing speed measure, emphasizing the need for future research into the specific cognitive domains underlying the subjective estimation of a temporal interval.

Retrospective time estimation following damage to the prefrontal cortex.

Time estimation in patients with prefrontal cortex (PFC) damage is often inaccurate. The relationship between PFC and estimation of short time intervals has been examined. However, it remains unclear whether PFC damage affects estimation of longer time intervals. Here, we investigated the ability of patients and healthy subjects to verbally estimate a period of 30min, using a method easily applied in clinical settings. In 99 patients with brain damage, we compared under and normal ranges of time in patients with PFC damage or damage to other brain areas with the chi-squared test. Subsequently, we conducted a discriminant analysis and a multiple linear regression analysis to identify specific brain areas affecting time estimation. We observed a significantly larger number of patients who overestimated 30min in the group with bilateral PFC damage compared to patients with damage to other regions. Discriminant analysis revealed that damage of right lateral PFC and left medial PFC contributed to discrimination between the normal range and overestimation groups. Multiple linear regression analysis indicated that right lateral PFC damage strongly affected overestimation of a 30-min interval. Neuropsychological test results revealed lower general cognitive function scores and orientation scores in overestimation group. The length of estimated time and the score of delayed word recall were negatively correlated. We propose that these may require encoding, maintenance, and updating of memory and are indirectly related to contextual memory. We discuss hypotheses on contextual memory segmentation and reconstruction to clarify the mechanism of impaired time overestimation in PFC-damaged patients.

Time perspective stands out as the time variable that reliably separates anxious and nonanxious individuals

Background: It is well-recognized that emotions and emotional disorders may alter the experience of time. Yet relatively little is known about different aspects of psychological time in relation to anxiety. The purpose of the present study was to explore several aspects of temporal processing, including time perspective, prospective and retrospective time estimation, in persons with anxiety symptoms. Methods: A total of 110 individuals with varying degrees of anxiety participated in two studies. They were assigned to two groups (anxiety–control) based on their scores on anxiety measurements. Participants also completed an inventory of time perspective and several time estimation tasks which were analyzed on a group-level. Depressive symptoms were assessed and used as a covariate in the second study. Results: Anxiety was significantly associated with Past Negative and Future Negative time perspectives as measured by the Swedish Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (S-ZTPI), even when controlling for the effect of depressive symptoms. No other significant differences were found. Conclusion: Exploring time perspective in persons with anxious symptoms may provide important insights into features of anxiety. These findings may offer new ways of conceptualizing anxiety and provide suggestions for treatment strategies.

The faster internal clock in ADHD is related to lower processing speed: WISC-IV profile analyses and time estimation tasks facilitate the distinction between real ADHD and pseudo-ADHD

Alterations in temporal processing may represent a primary cause of key symptoms in ADHD. This study is aimed at investigating the nature of time-processing alterations in ADHD and assessing the possible utility of testing time estimation for clinical diagnostics. Retrospective verbal time estimation in the range of several minutes was examined in 50 boys with ADHD and 53 boys with other mental disorders. All participants (age 7–16) attended an outpatient clinic for ADHD diagnostics. The diagnostic assessment included the WISC-IV. Subjects with ADHD made longer and less accurate duration estimates than the clinical control group. The ADHD group showed a specific WISC-IV profile with processing speed deficits. In the ADHD group there was a correlation between processing speed and quality of time estimation that was not observed in the comparison group: higher processing speed indices were related to more accurate duration estimates. The findings provide support for the presence of a faster internal clock in subjects with ADHD and lend further support to the existence of a specific WISC-IV profile in subjects with ADHD. The results show that analyzing WISC-IV profiles and time estimation tasks are useful differential diagnosis tools, particularly when it comes to distinguishing between “real ADHD” and pseudo-ADHD.

Why are they late? Timing abilities and executive control among students with learning disabilities

While a deficient ability to perform daily tasks on time has been reported among students with learning disabilities (LD), the underlying mechanism behind their ‘being late' is still unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the organization in time, time estimation abilities, actual performance time pertaining to specific daily activities, as well as the executive functions of students with LD in comparison to those of controls, and to assess the relationships between these domains among each group. The participants were 27 students with LD, aged 20–30, and 32 gender and age-matched controls who completed the Time Organization and Participation Scale (TOPS) and the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult version (BRIEF-A). In addition, their ability to estimate the time needed to complete the task of preparing a cup of coffee as well as their actual performance time were evaluated. The results indicated that in comparison to controls, students with LD showed significantly inferior organization in time (TOPS) and executive function abilities (BRIEF-A). Furthermore, their time estimation abilities were significantly inferior and they required significantly more time to prepare a cup of coffee. Regression analysis identified the variables that predicted organization in time and task performance time among each group. The significance of the results for both theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.What this paper adds?This study examines the underlying mechanism of the phenomena of being late among students with LD. Following a recent call for using ecologically valid assessments, the functional daily ability of students with LD to prepare a cup of coffee and to organize time were investigated. Furthermore, their time estimation and executive control abilities were examined as a possible underlying mechanism for their lateness. Although previous studies have indicated executive control deficits among students with LD, to our knowledge, this is the first analysis of the relationships between their executive control and time estimation deficits and their influence upon their daily function and organization in time abilities. Our findings demonstrate that students with LD need more time in order to execute simple daily activities, such as preparing a cup of coffee. Deficient working memory, retrospective time estimation ability and inhibition predicted their performance time and organization in time abilities. Therefore, this paper sheds light on the mechanism behind daily performance in time among students with LD and emphasizes the need for future development of focused intervention programs to meet their unique needs.

Association of retrospective time estimation and severity of cognitive impairment

ABSTRACTIntroduction. Time perception has an important role in everyday life, but is not commonly measured in clinical routine assessment of suspected cognitive impairment, given the complexity of available assessment methods. Furthermore, evidence on the pattern of retrospective time perception in neurodegenerative diseases is contradictory. Method. We asked 321 patients referred to neuropsychological assessment to retrospectively estimate the duration of the neuropsychological assessment session. We calculated the session actual duration, ratio, and accuracy of response. Patients were grouped into three categories: subjective cognitive impairment, mild cognitive impairment, and mild to moderate dementia. Results. We found an overall tendency for underestimation of time, but no significant differences between groups regarding time estimation. There were significant, but weak, associations between time estimation and severity of cognitive impairment in several domains, with slightly different patterns across groups. Conclusions. Regardless of etiology, the majority of patients underestimated time, which was weakly associated with the severity of cognitive impairment. Global retrospective estimation may be clinically informative, particularly in a minority of extreme cases.

Beyond Neglect: Preliminary Evidence of Retrospective Time Estimation Abnormalities in Non-Neglect Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack Patients.

Perception of the passage of time is essential for safe planning and navigation of everyday activities. Findings from the literature have demonstrated a gross underestimation of time interval in right-hemisphere damaged neglect patients, but not in non-neglect unilaterally-damaged patients, compared to controls. This study aimed to investigate retrospective estimation of the duration of a target detection task over two occasions, in 30 stroke patients (12 left-side stroke 15 right-side stroke, and 3 right-side stroke with neglect) and 10 transient ischemic attack patients, relative to 31 age-matched controls. Performances on visual short-term and working memory tasks were also examined to investigate the associations between timing abilities with residual cognitive functioning. Initial results revealed evidence of perceptual time underestimation, not just in neglect patients, but also in non-neglect unilaterally-damaged stroke patients and transient ischemic attack patients. Three months later, underestimation of time persisted only in left-side stroke and right-side stroke with neglect patients, who also demonstrated reduced short-term and working memory abilities. Findings from this study suggest a predictive role of residual cognitive impairments in determining the prognosis of perceptual timing abnormalities.

Unifying Prospective and Retrospective Interval-time Estimation: A Fading-gaussian Activation-based Model of Interval-timing

Hass and Hermann (2012) have shown that only variance-based processes will lead to the scalar growth of error that is characteristic of human time judgments. Secondly, a major meta-review of over one hundred studies (Block et al., 2010) reveals a striking interaction between the way in which temporal judgments are queried and cognitive load on participants’ judgments of interval duration. For retrospective time judgments, estimates under high cognitive load are longer than under low cognitive load. For prospective judgments, the reverse pattern holds, with increased cognitive load leading to shorter estimates. We describe GAMIT, a Gaussian spreading-activation model, in which the sampling rate of an activation trace is differentially affected by cognitive load. The model unifies prospective and retrospective time estimation, normally considered separately, by relating them to the same underlying process. The scalar property of time estimation arises naturally from the model dynamics and the model shows the appropriate interaction between mode of query and cognitive load.

Group Wisdom and Omnaural Perception: Discovering Frequency Differences by Averaging the Retrospective Time Estimates of Listeners

An audio stimulation experiment analyzed the ways in which frequency combinations and auditory beats affect the perception of time. Evidence of group wisdom regarding difference frequencies was derived by averaging the retrospective time estimates of groups who listened to three minutes of various sine wave combinations. A difference of 14 cycles per second in carrier frequencies corresponded to differences of 14 seconds between the average time estimates of groups who heard the two carrier frequencies. Groups thereby “perceived” the difference between two carrier frequencies when no individual heard more than one carrier frequency and no individual communicated with any other individual. This new phenomenon of group wisdom, here identified as omnaural perception, corresponded to basic patterns in EEG data from each group. Omnaural perception was evident in sets of groups even when individuals heard different rates of auditory beats. Omnaural perception also occurred for groups regardless of whether auditory beats were produced monaurally or binaurally for each individual. Indirect applications of this research involve the development of frequency combinations which can lead to an increase the perceived speed of time.

Interoceptive Focus Shapes the Experience of Time

The perception of time is a fundamental part of human experience. Recent research suggests that the experience of time emerges from emotional and interoceptive (bodily) states as processed in the insular cortex. Whether there is an interaction between the conscious awareness of interoceptive states and time distortions induced by emotions has rarely been investigated so far. We aimed to address this question by the use of a retrospective time estimation task comparing two groups of participants. One group had a focus on interoceptive states and one had a focus on exteroceptive information while watching film clips depicting fear, amusement and neutral content. Main results were that attention to interoceptive processes significantly affected subjective time experience. Fear was accompanied with subjective time dilation that was more pronounced in the group with interoceptive focus, while amusement led to a quicker passage of time which was also increased by interoceptive focus. We conclude that retrospective temporal distortions are directly influenced by attention to bodily responses. These effects might crucially interact with arousal levels. Sympathetic nervous system activation affecting memory build-up might be the decisive factor influencing retrospective time judgments. Our data substantially extend former research findings underscoring the relevance of interoception for the effects of emotional states on subjective time experience.

GAMIT : a fading-gaussian activation model of interval timing : unifying prospective and retrospective time estimation

GAMIT : a fading-gaussian activation model of interval timing : unifying prospective and retrospective time estimation