Under the prospective paradigm, judged time decreased monotonically with the increased processing demands of concurrent card sorting (Experiment I) and of concurrent verbal rehearsal (Experiment II). It was nonmonotonically related to concurrent tapping rate (Experiment III), which latter, when required during verbal rehearsal, had an identical curvilinear effect on short-term recall (Experiment IV). It is concluded that the experience of time-in-passing is an inverse function of the processing demanded by a concurrent task. An attentional model is suggested and evaluated against the literature.

Concurrent processing demands and the experience of time-in-passing

Publisher Summary Perception is information extracted from a stimulus that is present Changes may be characterized by the following two aspects: (1) the succession and order of events and (2) the duration of the event or the interval between two successive events Perception always consists of perceiving an event of variable duration The perceived present, or psychological present, may be defined as the temporal extent of stimulations that can be perceived at a given time, without the intervention of rehearsal during or after the stimulation The capacity of apprehension of successive stimulations is to be distinguished from long-term and short-term memory The concept of short-term memory refers to the possibility of keeping in memory a series of bits of information for a duration that does not exceed several tenths of seconds The chapter also discusses the methods of perception of duration Four main methods are used in the study of the perception of duration: verbal estimation, production, reproduction, and comparison Perceived rhythm in which ordering is given in a perceptual gestalt is contrasted to induced rhythm in which ordering is reconstructed on the basis of experiences stored in memory

Time and rhythm perception

A short review of hypotheses on human time perception emphasises the distinction between endogenous and exogenous concepts. Methods are described, and the related problem of stationarity is discussed. A hypothesis is formulated which assumes oscillatory processes as the basis for the perception of short temporal intervals. Several experiments are described which test this hypothesis. The results of the first experiment suggest a temporal constant in the range of the conscious present. Periodic components in subjective random series which are demonstrated in another experiment, indicate a sequence of temporal units. The influence of physiological factors on time perception is illustrated; diurnal variations are discussed as an example. However, it is shown that the observed variations in time perception are not dependent on body temperature alone. The importance of informational cues is noted and an experiment is described which indicates the role of individual differences.

Oscillations as possible basis for time perception.

Time judgment as a function of method, practice, and sex.

Two experiments were performed to examine whether the same underlying mechanisms apply to the duration estimates of both auditory and visual events In Experiment 1, it was found that the durations of visual scenes are reproduced with the same level of accuracy in prospective and retrospective situations when these display a predictable array of information, a result consistent with past research on auditory durations Experiment 2 further revealed that when participants are asked to prospectively or retrospectively judge the durations of various naturalistic events in their auditory, visual, or audiovisual modality, no differences in either accuracy or bias are observed These findings diverge from previous research and are argued to stem from different processing mechanisms that arise from naturalistic events

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.3758/BF03193641.pdf

Duration judgments of naturalistic events in the auditory and visual modalities.

When a series of reproductions of an interval is made in the absence of a standard the judgements progressively lengthen. The similarity between stimulus conditions in this type of time estimation experiment and the conditions which produce a decrement in human vigilance is discussed. It is argued that failure to detect cues for the passage of time reduces the amount of time perceived to elapse. Reproduced judgements must consequently be increased in length to match remembered standards. The hypothesis is then made that the kind of variation in background stimulation which facilitates vigilance should increase the frequency of detection of cues for duration and reduce reproduced judgements. This hypothesis is tested with 80 subjects and a reversal of the serial reproduction effect is found on trials with changed background conditions.

Stimulus Variation and Sequential Judgements of Duration

A statistical decision hypothesis is outlined to account for a progressive lengthening of judgments which occurs when a series of reproductions of a time interval is made without interpolation of a standard. Three experiments are reported in which it is found that this serial effect can be manipulated by hypothetical payoff conditions, that the effect still occurs when subjects are told to count while making their judgments, and that two successive judgments are sufficient to demonstrate the effect if enough subjects are used. The phenomenon is related to recent studies of vigilance in which statistical decision theory has been applied. It is suggested that serial reproductions of time intervals may perhaps be a more sensitive index of the factors underlying vigilance than the traditional measures involving long sessions with weak, sporadic signals.

/pdf/time-perception-vigilance-and-decision-theory-25xjflsuaf.pdf

G. von Sturmer

Papers

Stimulus Variation and Sequential Judgements of Duration

Time perception, vigilance and decision theory