Time Perception In Children Research Articles

Особливості формування сприйняття почасових уявлень у дітей із порушенням інтелектуального розвитку

The article covers the process of forming perception of time for children with intellectual developmental disorders of primary school age. It is noted that the formation of the perception of time and time orientation is one of the most complex areas of knowledge, skills and abilities included in the content of social experience, as they are quite abstract and their operation requires the performance of complex thought operations. Attention is drawn to the fact that the formation of a sense of time in children with intellectual developmental disabilities is not sufficiently investigated and requires further methodology development. The article covers the main theoretical concepts of the formation and development of time perception of children with normative development and children with mental disabilities. And it is also noted that children with strong intellectual development disorders, understanding of the names of the months, skills and abilities to determine the sequence of terms, the concept of a day, time, are formed slowly and with great difficulty. To make it easier to acquire the material, it is recommended to combine the use of different forms of visualization with practical activities and repetition. Consolidation takes place in the form of didactic games, in various educational classes and in everyday life. This option of learning allows for a personal approach to children in the process of forming a sense of time, and it makes it possible to influence their overall development.

Inferior Auditory Time Perception in Children With Motor Difficulties.

Accurate time perception is crucial for hearing (speech, music) and action (walking, catching). Motor brain regions are recruited during auditory time perception. Therefore, the hypothesis was tested that children (age 6-7) at risk for developmental coordination disorder (rDCD), a neurodevelopmental disorder involving motor difficulties, would show nonmotor auditory time perception deficits. Psychophysical tasks confirmed that children with rDCD have poorer duration and rhythm perception than typically developing children (N=47, d=0.95-1.01). Electroencephalography showed delayed mismatch negativity or P3a event-related potential latency in response to duration or rhythm deviants, reflecting inefficient brain processing (N=54, d=0.71-0.95). These findings are among the first to characterize perceptual timing deficits in DCD, suggesting important theoretical and clinical implications.

Time perception in childhood absence epilepsy: Findings from a pilot study

ObjectivesWith this explorative study, we aimed to examine time perception in children with childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) and to compare those children with a matched control group. The study also investigated the association between the neuropsychological performance of the group with CAE and time judgment. We hypothesize that children with CAE could fail in time perception and that this may be because of a common underlying substrate with executive impairments. MethodsThirteen children with CAE, aged 6–13 years, and 17 healthy children were recruited. All children performed the time bisection task; the children with CAE also performed a cognitive and neuropsychological assessment. We performed a univariate analysis using each parameter of the bisection task (bisection point [BP]) and Weber ratio (WR) as dependent variables, the group (patients vs. controls) as fixed factors and age at evaluation and vocabulary scores as covariates. In the subgroup of patients, we correlated bisection task parameters with neuropsychological tests using a nonparametric partial correlation; the analysis has corrected for age at evaluation. ResultsThe BP and WR measures differed between controls and patients with CAE. In the subgroup of patients also performing a neuropsychological assessment, we found a correlation between the WR measure and performance on the inhibition test (r = −0.641, p = .025), coding test (r = −0.815, p = .014), and Trail Making Test B (TMT B) (r = 0.72, p = .042). ConclusionsWe found an altered time perception in a pilot study of a small group of children with CAE. A neurophysiological mechanism underlying CAE seems to influence cognitive and behavioral deficits and time sensibility.

Effect of the Symbolic Meaning of Speed on the Perceived Duration of Children and Adults.

The present study investigated how the symbolic meaning of speed affects time perception in children and adults. We employed a time reproduction task in which participants were asked to reproduce temporal intervals previously presented. In Experiment 1, 45 primary school children and 22 university students performed a time reproduction task with cars (meaning of fastness) and trucks (meaning of slowness) presented for 11 and 21 s in static and moving conditions. Results showed that young children under-reproduced the duration more than the older children and adults, especially when the stimulus presented was a car. Moreover, participants under-reproduced moving stimuli compared to static one. In Experiment 2, we tested 289 participants who were divided into nine different age groups according to their school class: five from primary school, three from Junior High, and one from the university. Participants performed a time reproduction task with a motorbike (meaning of fastness) or a bicycle (meaning of slowness) under static and moving conditions for 11, 21, and 36 s. The results confirmed the effects of symbolic meaning of speed on children’s time perception and showed that vehicles that evoked the idea of fastness were under-reproduced compared to stimuli evoking the idea of slowness.

Exploring the Effects of Working Memory on Time Perception in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are often reported to have deficits of time perception. However, there is a strong relation between performance on tasks of working memory and time perception. Thus, it is possible that the poor performance of children with ADHD on time perception results from their deficit of working memory. In this study, the working memory of participants was separately assessed; therefore, we could explore the relationship between working memory and time perception of children with ADHD. Fifty-six children with ADHD and those of healthy controls completed tasks measuring working memory and time perception. The results showed that the time discrimination ability of children with ADHD was poorer than that of controls. However, there was a strong association between time perception and working memory. After controlling working memory and intelligence, the time discrimination ability of children with ADHD was not significantly poorer than that of controls. We suggest that there is an interdependent relationship between time perception and working memory for children with ADHD.

The effect of different emotional images on time perception in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and normal

The effect of different emotional images on time perception in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and normal

A Study on the Validity of a Computer-Based Game to Assess Cognitive Processes, Reward Mechanisms, and Time Perception in Children Aged 4-8 Years.

BackgroundA computer-based game, named Timo’s Adventure, was developed to assess specific cognitive functions (eg, attention, planning, and working memory), time perception, and reward mechanisms in young school-aged children. The game consists of 6 mini-games embedded in a story line and includes fantasy elements to enhance motivation.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the validity of Timo’s Adventure in normally developing children and in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).MethodsA total of 96 normally developing children aged 4-8 years and 40 children with ADHD were assessed using the game. Clinical validity was investigated by examining the effects of age on performances within the normally developing children, as well as performance differences between the healthy controls and the ADHD group.ResultsOur analyses in the normally developing children showed developmental effects; that is, older children made fewer inhibition mistakes (r=−.33, P=.001), had faster (and therefore better) reaction times (r=−.49, P<.001), and were able to produce time intervals more accurately than younger children (ρ=.35, P<.001). Discriminant analysis showed that Timo’s Adventure was accurate in most classifications whether a child belonged to the ADHD group or the normally developing group: 78% (76/97) of the children were correctly classified as having ADHD or as being in the normally developing group. The classification results showed that 72% (41/57) children in the control group were correctly classified, and 88% (35/40) of the children in the ADHD group were correctly classified as having ADHD. Sensitivity (0.89) and specificity (0.69) of Timo’s Adventure were satisfying.ConclusionsComputer-based games seem to be a valid tool to assess specific strengths and weaknesses in young children with ADHD.

Emotional stimuli facilitate time perception in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The aim of this study was to compare the effect of different emotional stimuli (neutral, positive, and negative) on time perception in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and normal children in dual-task form. Five hundred and ninety-nine students from primary schools were randomly selected. The Conner's Teacher Rating Scale (CTRS) questionnaire was completed by teachers. A total of 100 children with a score above the cut-off point for the CTRS were further assessed using the Child Symptom Inventory-4 (CSI-4). A total of 34 children with ADHD and 31 controls completed an emotional time discrimination task in two blocks of 1000 and 2000ms duration. Children were asked to compare three image groups: neutral with neutral, neutral with positive, and neutral with negative images. Children with ADHD had significantly better performance in the emotional time discrimination task across all conditions when compared with controls: On average, discrimination thresholds were approximately 35ms shorter for the children with ADHD. Our results indicate that children with ADHD have higher sensitivity to time relative to controls in a situation in which they must distribute resources between temporal and emotional processing. On the basis of the interference effect and the working memory capacity hypothesis, this dividing of attention causes a decrease of time accuracy in normal children.

Dysfunction of Time Perception in Children and Adolescents with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Objectives: Children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may have deficits in time perception, as assessed by the time estimation task and the time reproduction task, however its age-related trajectory is not yet determined. Therefore we examined the correlation between accuracy of time perception tasks and age, and the association between accuracy of estimation tasks and reproduction tasks. Methods: Sixty-three patients with ADHD, aged 8 to 18 years tested the tasks for five time durations (2, 4, 12, 45, and 60 seconds). Accuracy of tasks was assumed differences (absolute values) between raw results of tasks and original time durations. Spearman’s correlation analysis was performed to determine correlation between accuracy of time perception tasks and age. Multivariate regression was used to determine the association of accuracy of estimation tasks with accuracy of reproduction tasks. Results: Age showed correlation with accuracy of estimation tasks, but not with that of reproduction tasks. We observed that the higher the accuracy in 12, 45, and 60 seconds duration time reproduction, the higher the accuracy in longer seconds duration time estimation. Conclusion: Age was correlated with time estimation accuracy whereas there was no impact on time reproduction accuracy. Association of each of the two time perception tasks, particularly in longer time duration, suggested specific impairments in time perception.

Emotion and Time Perception in Children and Adults: The Effect of Task Difficulty

In the present study, adults and children aged five and eight years were given a temporal bisection task involving emotional stimuli (angry and neutral faces) and three levels of discrimination difficulty that differed as a function of the ratio used between the short and the long standard duration (very easy, easy, and difficult). In addition, their cognitive capacities in terms of working memory and attention inhibition were assessed by neuropsychological tests. In the very easy temporal task (ratio of 1:4), the results showed that the psychophysical functions were shifted toward the left in all participants for the angry faces compared to the neutral faces, with a significant lowering of the Bisection Point, suggesting that the stimulus duration was judged to last longer for the emotional stimuli. In addition, the results did not show any relationship between the magnitude of this lengthening effect and individual cognitive capacities as assessed by the neuropsychological tests. The individual differences in working memory capacities only explained differences in sensitivity to time. However, when the difficulty of the temporal task increased, the children’s performance decreased and it was no longer possible to test for the emotional effect. Unlike the children, the adults were still able to discriminate time in the emotional task. However, the emotional effect was no longer observed. In conclusion, our study on temporal task difficulty shows the influence of available cognitive resources on the emergence of an emotional effect on time perception.

Time perception in children with autism spectrum disorder: A test with an interval bisection task

Time perception in children with autism spectrum disorder: A test with an interval bisection task

Time Perception in Children with Developmental Dyscalculia

The present work evaluates time perception in children with dyscalculia (DD) to verify whether DD can interfere with timing tasks. Sample includes: 12 DD subjects (M=9.5 years) and 12 healthy subjects (M=9.2 years). Two studies are carried out: a time comparison task (to judge whether an interval was longer or shorter than a reference interval) and a time reproduction task. The ANOVA shows the effect of factor GROUP on temporal relationship and errors on temporal comparison. In sub- second duration timing task, DD children are less accurate than healthy children; boys seem to have a lower level of performance than girls.

Time perception in children treated for a cerebellar medulloblastoma

The aim of the present study was to investigate temporal abilities in children treated by surgery for a malignant tumor in the cerebellum. Children with a diagnosed medulloblastoma and age-paired control children were given a temporal discrimination task (bisection task) and a temporal reproduction task with two duration ranges, one shorter than 1s and the other longer than 4s. The motor and cognitive capacities of these children were also assessed by a battery of age-adapted neuropsychological tests. The results did not show any significant difference in performance between the children with or without cerebellar lesions in the temporal discrimination task. It was only in the temporal reproduction task that the children with cerebellar lesions reproduced longer and more variable durations than the other children, but only for the short stimulus durations (≤ 1 s). In addition, a hierarchical regression analysis revealed that the best predictor of variance in temporal performance was a significantly lower processing speed in children with cerebellar lesions in comparison to their controls. These results indicated that the major cause of deficits in temporal judgments in children with cerebellar lesions was due to their inability to reproduce accurately short temporal intervals in association with low processing speed, rather than to a specific deficit in the perception of time.

Time perception in children: A neurodevelopmental approach

In this review, we discuss behavioral studies on time perception in healthy children that suggest the existence of a primitive “sense” of time in infants as well as research that has revealed the changes in time judgments that occur throughout childhood. Moreover, a distinction is made between implicit and explicit time judgments in order to take account of the different types of temporal judgments that emerge across ages. On the basis of both the neurobiological model of the internal clock proposed by Matell and Meck (2000), and of results of imaging studies in human adults, we then try to identify which of the neural structures underlying this primitive sense of time mature faster and which mature more slowly in order to explain the age-related variance in time judgments. To this end, we also present the small number of timing studies conducted among typically and non-typically developing children that have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as well as those that have assessed the cognitive capacities of such children on the basis of various neuropsychological tests.

Rise Time Perception in Children With Reading and Combined Reading and Language Difficulties

Using a non–speech-specific measure of prosody, rise time perception, Goswami and her colleagues have found that individuals with dyslexia perform significantly worse than nonimpaired readers. Studies have also found that children and adults with specific language impairment were impaired on these tasks. Despite the high comorbidity of these disorders, only one study has assessed rise time sensitivity in children with comorbid reading and oral language difficulties. The authors further examined rise time sensitivity in children with both reading and oral language difficulties. They compared performance on rise time perception tasks between 18 children with reading difficulties, 15 children with combined reading and oral language difficulties, and 17 chronological age–matched controls. The authors found a significant interaction between group and performance on auditory tasks. Further tests revealed that chronological age–matched controls were significantly better on the rise time measures compared to both groups of children with reading difficulties. Performance between the groups of children with reading difficulties did not significantly differ.

Time Perception in Children with ADHD: The Effects of Task Modality and Duration

The purpose of the current study was to examine the performance of children with and without ADHD in time reproduction tasks involving varying durations and modalities. Twenty children with ADHD and 20 healthy controls completed time reproduction tasks in three modalities (auditory, visual, and a unique combined auditory/visual condition) and six durations (1 second, 4 seconds, 12 seconds, 24 seconds, 48 seconds, and 60 seconds). Consistent with our predictions, we found main effects of group (participants with ADHD were significantly less accurate than those without ADHD), duration (accuracy decreased as temporal duration increased), and modality (responses in the combined condition were more accurate than those in the auditory condition, which in turn were more accurate than those in the visual condition). Furthermore, predicted interactions between group and duration (the discrepancy in performance between the two groups grew as temporal duration increased), and group and modality (the modality effect was of greater for participants with ADHD) were supported. A marginal, nonsignificant interaction between group, modality, and duration was also found. These findings are discussed in relation to current theory on the nature of cognitive deficits evident in individuals with ADHD, and methodological limitations are noted.

Anger and time perception in children.

The present study investigated age-related variations in judgments of the duration of angry facial expressions compared with neutral facial expressions. Children aged 3, 5, and 8 years were tested on a temporal bisection task using angry and neutral female faces. Results revealed that, in all age groups, children judged the duration of angry faces to be longer than that of neutral faces. Findings are discussed in the framework of internal clock models and the adaptive function of emotion.

Sensory modality and time perception in children and adults

This experiment investigated the effect of signal modality on time perception in 5- and 8-year-old children as well as young adults using a duration bisection task in which auditory and visual signals were presented in the same test session and shared common anchor durations. Durations were judged shorter for visual than for auditory signals by all age groups. However, the magnitude of this modality difference was larger in the children than in the adults. Sensitivity to time was also observed to increase with age for both modalities. Taken together, these two observations suggest that the greater modality effect on duration judgments for the children, for whom attentional abilities are considered limited, is the result of visual signals requiring more attentional resources than are needed for the processing of auditory signals. Within the framework of the information-processing model of Scalar Timing Theory, these effects are consistent with a developmental difference in the operation of the "attentional switch" used to transfer pulses from the pacemaker into the accumulator. Specifically, although timing is more automatic for auditory than visual signals in both children and young adults, children have greater difficulty in keeping the switch in the closed state during the timing of visual signals.

The Relationship between Behavioral Inhibition and Time Perception in Children

To test one component of Barkley's (1997) model of executive functions by examining the relationship between behavioral inhibition and time perception in children. Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationships between measures of behavioral inhibition and time perception for the entire sample, and for boys (n = 34) and girls (n = 26) separately. For both parent and child measures, behavioral inhibition and time perception scores were correlated for the total group and for girls. Child measure of behavioral inhibition and time perception were not correlated for boys. The findings of this study support Barkley's theory and indicate a relationship between poor behavioral inhibition and poor time perception in children.

Alerting attention and time perception in children

This experiment investigated the effect of a signal (i.e., a click) warning of the arrival of a stimulus to be timed on temporal discrimination in children aged 3, 5, and 8 years ( N=86), using a bisection task with visual stimuli ranging from 0.5 to 2 s or 1 to 4 s. In all groups, the psychophysical functions were orderly with the proportion of long responses increasing with the stimulus duration, although the steepness of functions increased with age. Stimulus durations were judged to be longer with than without the click in all age groups. With the click, time sensitivity also improved and more particularly in the younger children. The statistical results suggest, within the framework of the scalar timing theory, that the click reduces the closing latency of the switch that connects the pacemaker to the accumulator in the internal clock and also reduces its trial-by-trial variability.