Can't hold any more! A large survey on cycling subjective experience at the limit of effort.

Campus transportation is representative of citywide transportation problems, making sustainable mobility solutions more important considering rising environmental concerns and traffic congestion. This paper investigates the mobility patterns of the population of the University of Tabuk (UT) commuting to the main campus using survey data and explores the opportunities to adopt new sustainable mobility alternatives from the commuters and experts’ points of view. Five transportation mode alternatives are investigated and assessed through a direct survey among a considerable number of UT population. The opinions of 9 experts and decision makers are studied by applying Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) adopting five criteria: Environment, Safety, Economy, Time and Social perception. The experts selected “Safety” as the most important criterion for the selection of a sustainable mode of transport, followed by Economy and Environment. The analysis indicates that more than 86% of UT members commute with private cars. The trip duration is between 10 minutes and 20 minutes for 70% of UT population. For almost all the alternatives, male single students with higher trip duration are the most interested profile in sustainable transportation options. Based on the weights of criteria, FAHP results show the alternative bus from the residence to the university as the best sustainable alternative, followed by the park-and-ride intercampus bus, which was the second-highest alternative in the campus population survey. The findings can provide a basis for developing transportation strategies for UT aimed at alleviating traffic issues and congestion in the surrounding area and enhancing environmental conditions on campus and its vicinity. Keywords: Fuzzy hierarchy decision-making, Population survey, Sustainable transportation, Campus commuters, Mobility pattern.

Background: Music stimuli are widely used in retail, hospitality and service industries to shape customer experience. They create atmosphere, evoke emotions and support loyalty. Variations in genre, tempo, volume and tone influence movement patterns, time perception, comfort and willingness to stay, while also guiding product choices and encouraging unplanned purchases. Aims: This paper synthesises theoretical and empirical studies on the role of music stimuli in economic environments, with a specific focus on conscious consumer genre preferences. Methods: A structured literature review was conducted, drawing on research from marketing, psychology, and sensory science to identify and compare key concepts, frameworks, and findings. In addition, a bibliometric analysis of international publications was performed using Web of Science data, with keyword co-occurrence visualised through VOSviewer. Results: Genre choice interacts with demographic characteristics, cultural context, and service type. Conscious preferences can mediate the impact of music, influencing both satisfaction and purchasing outcomes. Conclusions: Music stimuli function as strategic tools in consumer contexts, with genre alignment crucial for perceived congruence and engagement. Implications: Effective practice should address not only the presence of background music but also the alignment between genre and audience preferences to maximize economic impact.

This study explores the narrative techniques of unreliable narration in Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories “Ligeia”, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” and “Manuscript Found in a Bottle.” It investigates how Poe’s narrators distort time, space, and psychological perception to construct narrative ambiguity and disorientation amongst the readers. Drawing upon Wayne C. Booth’s theory of rhetorical narration and Gerard Genette’s narrative structural analysis, this study demonstrates that Poe’s narrators do not just merely mislead readers but rather actively immerse them in psychological disorientation and narrative ambiguity. Ultimately, Poe’s strategic use of unreliable narration emerges not as a narrative flaw but as a deliberate technique that deepens thematic complexity and reinforces Gothic conventions of instability and uncertainty. The findings contribute to broader discussions on the evolution of unreliable narration in psychological and Gothic fiction and reaffirm Poe’s pioneering role in shapingmodern narrative practices.

Although the idea of the coming community has attracted significant scholarly attention, the temporal thought within the context of Agamben’s theory, and its relationship to his political thinking, has remained relatively underexplored. By reconstructing Agamben’s temporal thought – through the triadic structure of creation time, remaining time, and presence time – this article demonstrates that Agamben’s contribution advances temporal critiques while addressing the critical question of what lies beyond critique: the transformation of our perception and experience of time itself. More importantly, this reconstruction of Agamben’s temporal thought opens new possibilities for a more practically engaged understanding of the coming community and offers intellectual resources for reimagining and practicing a new ethical-political life in our time.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) has high prevalence among adolescents with mood disorders and is accompanied by cognitive impairments. Most existing studies have examined their impairments on single cognitive domains. It remains unclear which cognitive deficits are associated with adolescent NSSI and its functions and addictive features, from a multidimensional perspective. A total of 161 adolescents diagnosed with first-episode major depressive disorder (MDD) and 137 healthy controls were recruited between June 2020 and December 2024. Participants were divided into three groups: adolescents with MDD and NSSI (MDD + NSSI, n = 84, age = 15.47 ± 1.59), those with MDD and without NSSI (MDD-NSSI, n = 77, age = 16.11 ± 2.16), and healthy controls (HCs, n = 137, age = 15.92 ± 3.13). NSSI behavior and its four common functions (internal emotion regulation, external emotion regulation, social influence, and sensation seeking) as well as the addiction feature, were assessed using the Ottawa Self-injury Inventory. Cognitive domains such as emotion recognition, cognitive control, working memory, and reward processing were assessed using an in-house Cognitive Assessment Battery. Data were analyzed via ANOVA, logistic regression, and multiple linear regression. Both the MDD + NSSI and MDD-NSSI groups showed significantly greater cognitive dysfunctions compared to the HCs. Logistic regression models indicated that cognitive domains such as memory, cognitive control, reward processing, delay discounting, and time perception were significantly associated with the presence of NSSI among adolescents with MDD. Multiple linear regression analyses further revealed that emotion recognition, working memory, cognitive control, and reward processing were significantly related to NSSI functions and the addictive features. Our results showed that NSSI behaviors, its functions, and addictive features are all associated with multidimensional cognitive dysfunctions. These findings highlight the clinical relevance of implementing thorough, multidomain cognitive evaluations in adolescents with NSSI. Not applicable.

The concept of timing is an interesting way to understand how the body and brain construct the concept of self, but also how self-distortions arise in the case of psychosis. Analysis of temporal representations in psychosis highlights a deficit that includes both the subjective experience of the flow of time, i.e., time perception, and the ability to process temporal information inherent to any perceptual event, i.e., perceptual timing. The representation of the self is stabilized within temporal windows, and thus the self is experienced as continuous in time. Disturbance in the sense of time, in the form of a loss of temporal continuity, has been described by phenomenologists as a central subjective experience of schizophrenia. The positive symptoms of schizophrenia are associated with overestimation of interval timing, i.e., an acceleration of the 'internal clock', while dopamine neurotransmission is likely to regulate the speed of the internal clock. Moreover, findings highlight the importance of interoceptive precision as an aspect of time perception, since accuracy in time perception is related to interoceptive accuracy and vagal activity. Insula contributes significantly to the total awareness of reality. Global emotional moments and meta-representations of the conscious self are created in the anterior insula. In psychosis, the interaction between the default-mode network and the frontoparietal executive network is disrupted by aberrant salience signals from the right anterior insula. Here, we describe the role of the insula as a key hub for the recognition of major aspects of the self, in parallel with the role of interoceptive predictive coding, which reflects the contribution of the insula to the temporality of the self. Based on the above, new insights focus on the development and implementation of rehabilitation strategies that specifically target the temporal deficits observed in psychosis. New therapeutic interventions are based on sensory education and enhancing the multisensory integration of these patients.

The importance of nonverbal communication cannot be underestimated. A significant part of human communication does not rely on words but on nonverbal signs such as time, tone of voice, body movements and touch, among others. Nonverbal communication is a powerful part of all social and professional discourse. The objective of the study was to ascertain gender differences in the use and perception of time in workplace interaction. The researcher used the semiotics theory, which is the study of signs in relation to their mode of transmission, as well as the Tubbs Model of Communication, which stipulates that communication is a non-static process of a sender/receiver attempting to stimulate meaning in the mind of another. The study was carried out in Narok Teachers’ Training College in the Lower Melili location, Narok County. Respondents were purposively sampled while data collection was carried out using questionnaires. The data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. In as much as absolute mastery of the use of time is not an absolute guarantee, improved consciousness in what one intends to communicate using this non-verbal cue is important in the workplace. The research outcomes were consolidated through coding, tabulation and use of frequency histograms. Further clarification of data was made in narrative form. Some of the findings on use and perception of time revealed that belated or real-time responses were majorly based on relationships rather than the tasks to be performed.

Objective Variability in cochlear implant (CI) performance has traditionally been linked to pre-operative factors. This study examined the impact of daily CI wear time on post-operative performance in adult recipients. Design and Study Sample A retrospective analysis was conducted on 158 adult CI users comparing pre- and post-operative factors contributing to performance after one year of use. Participants were divided into post hoc groups for analysis: those wearing their CI less than 10 hours per day (n = 46) and those wearing it 10 or more hours per day (n = 112). Results Daily CI wear time was correlated with speech perception scores (CNC Words, r = 0.44, AzBio, r = 0.37). Regression analyses found that average wear time and age significantly predicted AzBio scores (R 2 = 0.21) while wear time and duration of hearing loss predicted CNC Scores (R 2 = 0.28). Conclusion Average daily CI wear time, age at implantation and duration of hearing loss are reliable predictors of speech perception scores. Individuals wearing their CI for at least 10 hours per day scored significantly higher than those wearing it less than 10 hours per day. Data suggest earliest possible implantation and CI use of at least 10 hours per day is beneficial.

Abstract Objectives Mindfulness meditation has been reported to lengthen perceived durations, but it remains unclear whether these effects reflect meditation itself or confounding factors such as task repetition. Brief, app-based mindfulness practices are widely used by novices, yet they may induce states of relaxation rather than genuine mindfulness. The present study investigated whether short meditation sessions produce unique effects on duration judgments, or whether repetition better accounts for observed changes. Methods In Experiment 1A, 178 adults completed an online visual temporal bisection task before and after a brief 5-min interval which involved either a focused attention meditation ( n = 63), unfocused attention meditation ( n = 64), or doing nothing ( n = 50). Experiment 1B ( n = 60) was a laboratory replication of Experiment 1A. In Experiment 2 ( n = 64), the order of sessions was reversed: participants first completed a 5-min meditation and then performed the bisection task twice, allowing direct assessment of repetition effects. Results In both Experiments 1A and 1B, stimulus durations were overestimated after the interval across all groups, with only small and inconsistent group differences. In Experiment 2, a clear leftward shift in the psychophysical function occurred from the first to the second task session, indicating robust overestimation driven by task repetition. Conclusions The findings suggest that brief meditation sessions do not uniquely affect time perception in participants with no prior meditation experience. Instead, task repetition emerged as the dominant driver of overestimation, consistent with attention-based models of duration judgments. These results highlight the need to distinguish meditation-specific influences from the more general effects of relaxation and repeated task exposure. Preregistration This study was not preregistered.

The purpose of the study is to examine the presence and nature of the relationship between professionally significant psychophysiological qualities and the qualification level of football referees. Research methods: psychophysiological testing, methods of mathematical statistics. Research results and conclusions. Significant differences have been identified among referees of different qualifications in terms of time perception accuracy, reaction speed, and volitional qualities. Strong correlations were found between experience and perception accuracy, qualification and reaction speed, and volitional qualities and decision-making effectiveness. It was concluded that psychophysiological indicators are predictors of refereeing effectiveness, which justifies the need for specialized training for referees.

Our interaction with the world depends on our ability to process temporal information, which is a key component of human cognition that directly impacts decision-making, planning, and prediction of events. Visual information plays a crucial role in shaping our subjective perception of time, and even brief interruptions, such as those caused by eye blinks, can disrupt the continuity of our perception and alter how we estimate durations. The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between spontaneous eye blinks and time perception using a temporal bisection task. In particular, we focus on how blinks preceding stimulus presentation impact the perceived duration of that stimulus. The results of fitting a generalized linear mixed-effects model revealed that blinking can indeed influence the duration estimation. Specifically, the presence of a single blink before the stimulus presentation had a significant effect on subjective time perception; participants were more likely to categorize a duration as shorter compared to when they did not blink. In contrast, two or more blinks before stimulus presentation did not have a significant effect compared to not blinking. This study further elucidates the complex interaction between the momentary suppression of visual input and the perception of time.

Extreme brightness in virtual reality (VR) can stretch or compress time perception, yet its physiological driver remains unclear. Twenty-six adults watched a one-minute video in three luminance modes (night, dark, fullbright) via a head-mounted display (HMD) or PC monitor. A mixed-effects model revealed that pupil dilation significantly lengthened perceived duration (+1.71 s/mm, p < 0.001), outweighing saccadic effects. Mode-specific contrasts showed distinct distortion pathways: immersive near-darkness (night, +24.7%) and glare-induced fatigue (fullbright, +11.3%). Overall, pupil-linked arousal, not saccadic suppression, primarily drives VR-related time distortion. Controlled brightness thus offers a lever for ‘time engineering’ in VR, provided safeguards limit visual fatigue during extended use.

Prior knowledge violations about the world’s consistency can distort subjective time perception. Scenes containing contextually irrelevant objects (i.e., semantic violations) are typically underestimated in duration (i.e., perceived shorter), whereas those violating basic spatial norms (i.e., syntactic violations) are often overestimated (i.e., perceived longer) as compared to standard scenes without violations. Previous research has shown that directing attention toward such violations through low-level attentional manipulations can dilate their perceived duration. However, it remains unclear whether top-down attentional manipulations can produce a similar effect, especially given evidence suggesting a reduced influence of top-down attention in the presence of semantic and syntactic violations. Here, we examined the effect of top-down attention via crossmodal stimulation on time estimations of both semantic and syntactic violations. We utilized a temporal oddball paradigm where participants viewed sequences of naturalistic scenes with or without violations (semantic or syntactic). Each sequence included a violation scene (i.e., oddball) paired with white noise (i.e., control) or a sound that matched (i.e., congruent) or mismatched (i.e., incongruent) the target violation to manipulate top-down attention via crossmodal stimulation. Participants judged whether the oddball’s duration was shorter or longer than the no violation scenes. Analyses showed no differences in the perceived duration of syntactic violations scenes across the different types of auditory stimulation, a finding that is attributed to a diminished top-down attentional effect on scenes with syntactic violation given possibly to their higher perceptual load. Semantic violations, however, demonstrated sensitivity to crossmodal influence, where incongruent sound pairings led to interval overestimations as compared to congruent pairings. This suggests that crossmodal conflict enhanced attention toward the violations, leading to longer perceived durations. Our findings highlight the distinct susceptibility of semantic versus syntactic violations to top-down modulation in the temporal domain.

Extended waiting remains a persistent challenge in physical banking, often creating dissatisfaction and weakening customers’ emotional resilience. This issue highlights the relationship between waiting experiences, service quality delivery, and overall satisfaction during routine financial transactions. Service performance is evaluated through five core constructs: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Perceived waiting time serves as a mediating factor that shapes how service quality influences satisfaction. Survey data from active banking customers were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling, with validity and reliability tests confirming that all indicators met statistical standards. The structural model demonstrated strong predictive accuracy. Reliability and empathy produced the highest path coefficients, showing that procedural consistency and emotional connection remain vital during service delays. The strongest effect was found between perceived waiting time and satisfaction, emphasizing the role of emotional interpretation in shaping customer fulfillment. To improve service outcomes, redesign efforts should prioritize behavioral engagement, perceptual clarity, and emotional compensation—especially when processing speed cannot be increased. Recommended interventions include verbal reassurances, visual queue management, and relational training for frontline staff. These strategies enhance satisfaction without major infrastructure investment. The findings offer practical guidance for strengthening service delivery through empathy-based staff development and accessible digital enhancements. By positioning time perception as a central construct, the model extends traditional service quality frameworks and supports replication in other high-contact service environments.

With rising AI doctor agents in online consultations, effective visual feedback design is crucial. This study used a 3 × 3 mixed factorial design (three text-loading animations and three content-generation types) with 60 participants. We measured time perception (sense duration, waiting-time sensation), emotional experience (pleasure, arousal), and satisfaction. Results showed: loading icons with richer, dynamic visuals improved perception and experience; bar-gradient animations were preferred over circular icons; animated delays signaled “thinking,” enhancing emotional engagement, while instant content felt mechanical; under loop and bar animations, gradual content yielded the highest pleasure and arousal, then deferred, then instant; but with single-dot loading, instant content produced the highest pleasure and arousal, then deferred, then gradual. These insights inform design of medical conversational agents and HCI theory.

Although duration perception is well-researched in the auditory literature, many experiments ostensibly exploring generalized processing use one type of tone-simplistic "beeps" with abrupt offsets. This leaves unaddressed the question of how we perceive duration when listening to the types of temporally complex sounds common in everyday listening. Here, we investigate the point of equivalence for the duration of steady state (aka "flat") and more natural decaying (aka "percussive") tones. Through this, we (1) gain further insight into amplitude envelope's role in duration perception and (2) provide guidance useful for future studies moving beyond simplistic tones with flat amplitude envelopes. Specifically, we conduct a series of 2-alternative forced-choice adaptive staircase procedures across three experiments, with participants deciding which of two tones sound longer. Experiment 1 uses sounds matched in amplitude envelope (homogenous, N = 54), and Experiment 2 uses mismatched sounds (heterogenous, N = 55). In Experiment 3, participants completed both homogenous and heterogenous conditions across 10 sessions (N = 5). The heterogenous data illustrate a two-parameter linear equation ( ) best describes the point of subjective equality between flat and percussive tones, with model comparisons suggesting most unexplained variance can be attributed to individual differences. Together, these findings provide a useful step towards clarifying the perception of tones with amplitude envelopes more complex than those traditionally used in auditory perception studies, which holds important implications for both our theoretical understanding of perceived timing as well as ongoing applied work on improving hospital medical device sounds (which often use flat tones).

Abstract Mystical experiences are among the most extraordinary and meaningful experiences one can have. While such experiences have been studied for more than a century, it is still an open question how the brain can produce them. The present paper provides a possible answer by examining mystical experience from the lens of the REBUS hypothesis—a theory that explains the neurocognitive mechanisms of psychedelics in the Bayesian brain. Since psychedelics have consistently been shown to induce mystical experiences, the REBUS hypothesis implicitly suggests that it can also shed light on the underlying mechanisms of mystical experiences. The resulting account holds that during a mystical experience, the brain’s constant process of prediction error minimization is characterized by a decreased influence of high-level predictions and, simultaneously, an increased influence of sensory input. The latter can be related to the noetic quality of mystical experiences; the former to the experience of oneness, altered perception of time and space, ineffability, and deeply felt positive mood during/after a mystical experience. While the paper’s account is developed on a conceptual basis and thus remains speculative, it is compatible with other models of mystical experience, such as that mystical experience involves maximal uncertainty or a breaking down of attention.

This essay examines the subjective perception of time during the performance of long musical forms from the perspective of the performer. The starting point is the composition "Haltezeit", which works specifically with the stretching of time. Two improvisational performances without an audience will be used to explore how the perception of time changes in the course of performances lasting several hours and how this influences improvisational behavior. Practical experience is combined with concepts from the fields of philosophy, performance studies and musical improvisation research. The artistic experiments show that physical states such as tiredness or tension as well as external disturbances significantly influence the subjective perception of duration. While inner restlessness led to an extended experience of time and more frequent improvisational interventions, calmness and concentration favored a condensed, meditative experience of time with less frequent changes.Artistic practice thus becomes an experiential space for a qualitative perception of time beyond measurable structures. The essay sees itself as an open research gesture that invites us to perceive time more consciously as a flowing continuum in a performative context. keywords: long durational composition, artistic time research, subjective perception of time, attention

One facet of time experience is time perception, defined as the perception of duration and speed of passing time (distinguished from temporal processing, ie, the order of events in time). Time perception is known to be disordered across the schizophrenia spectrum and claims have been made about the differential relations between time perception abnormalities and schizophrenia symptom dimensions (eg, positive and negative), yet research has not elucidated how such dimensions relate to time perception task performance. This article systematically reviews studies of time perception in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, with a specific focus on methodologies used for symptom assessment, diagnosis, and time perception behavioral tasks. Following PRISMA guidelines, all publications on PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science were searched. Of the 1017 records identified, 20 studies were included in the review. Findings were mixed, with half of studies reporting no correlation between time perception measures and any symptom dimension, and the other half reporting associations between time perception abnormalities and positive or negative symptoms. Significant methodological heterogeneity was found across studies, both in terms of how symptom dimensions were assessed and which behavioral time perception tasks were utilized. Studies varied in terms of quality. The current literature does not support a strong association between any specific schizophrenia spectrum symptom dimension (positive, negative, or disorganized) and aberrant time perception as measured by behavioral tasks. Future research must address methodological and diagnostic heterogeneity before drawing strong conclusions regarding schizophrenia spectrum symptomatology and time perception.