Foreword, Robert Rousseau Introduction: The Persistence of Time, Warren H. Meck FUNCTIONAL MECHANISMS A Concise Introduction to Scalar Timing Theory, Russell M. Church General Learning Models: Timing without a Clock, John W. Hopson Nonlinearities in Sensitivity to Time: Implications for Oscillator-Based Representations of Interval and Circadian Clocks, Jonathon D. Crystal Toward a Unified Theory of Animal Event Timing, Thomas T. Hills Interval Timing and Optimal Foraging, Melissa Bateson Nonverbal Representations of Time and Number in Animals and Human Infants, Elizabeth M. Brannon and Jamie D. Roitman Temporal Experience and Timing in Children, Sylvie Droit-Volet Modality Differences in Interval Timing: Attention, Clock Speed, and Memory, Trevor B. Penney Attentional Time-Sharing in Interval Timing, Claudette Fortin Grandfather's Clock: Attention and Interval Timing in Older Adults, Cindy Lustig NEURAL MECHANISMS Neurogenetics of Interval Timing, Munire Ozlem Cevik Dopaminergic Mechanisms of Interval Timing and Attention, Catalin V. Buhusi Electrophysiological Correlates of Interval Timing, Shogo Sakata and Keiichi Onoda Importance of Frontal Motor Cortex in Divided Attention and Simultaneous Temporal Processing, Kevin C.H. Pang and J. Devin McAuley Integration of Behavior and Timing: Anatomically Separate Systems or Distributed Processing? Matthew S. Matell, Warren H. Meck, and Miguel A.L. Nicolelis Time Flies and May Also Sing: Cortico-Striatal Mechanisms of Interval Timing and Birdsong, Christopher J. MacDonald and Warren H. Meck Neuroimaging Approaches to the Study of Interval Timing, Sean C. Hinton Electrophysiological Evidence for Specific Processing of Temporal Information in Humans, Viviane Pouthas Cerebellar and Basal Ganglia Contributions to Interval Timing, Jorn Diedrichsen, Richard B. Ivry, and Jeff Pressing Interval Timing in the Dopamine-Depleted Basal Ganglia: From Empirical Data to Timing Theory, Chara Malapani and Brian C. Rakitin Overview: An Image of Human Neural Timing, Penelope A. Lewis and R. Chris Miall Afterword: Timing in the New Millennium, Where Are We Now? Francoise Macar Index

Functional and Neural Mechanisms of Interval Timing

Paying attention to a stimulus selectively increases the ability to process it. For example, when subjects attend to a specific region of a visual scene, their sensitivity to changes at that location increases. A large number of studies describe the behavioural consequences and neurophysiological correlates of attending to spatial locations. There has, in contrast, been little study of the allocation of attention over time. Because subjects can anticipate predictable events with great temporal precision, it seems probable that they might dynamically shift their attention when performing a familiar perceptual task whose constraints changed over time. We trained monkeys to respond to a stimulus change where the probability of occurrence changed over time. Recording from area V4 of the visual cortex in these animals, we found that the modulation of neuronal responses changed according to the probability of the change occurring at that instant. Thus, we show that the attentional modulation of sensory neurons reflects a subject's anticipation of the timing of behaviourally relevant events.

Attentional modulation in visual cortex depends on task timing.

Although employees' time estimates are used extensively for costing purposes, they are prone to measurement error. In an experimental setting, we research how measurement error in time estimates varies with: (1) the level of aggregation in the definition of costing system activities (aggregated or disaggregated); (2) task coherence (the extent to which the activities that require time estimates present themselves coherently or incoherently); and (3) when notice is given that time estimates will be required (in advance or after the fact), that is, whether participants know that time estimates will be required before they perform the activities. We also test on response mode (estimates in percentages or absolute time units). The results suggest an important trade‐off between the level of aggregation and measurement error: increasing aggregation in the definition of activities leads to lower measurement error. Also, advance notification reduces measurement error, especially in settings with aggregated activi...

On the Determinants of Measurement Error in Time-Driven Costing

Hodgkin and Huxley established that sodium currents in the squid giant axons activate after a delay, which is explained by the model of a channel with three identical independent gates that all have to open before the channel can pass current (the HH model). It is assumed that this model can adequately describe the sodium current activation time course in all mammalian central neurons, although there is no experimental evidence to support such a conjecture. We performed high temporal resolution studies of sodium currents gating in three types of central neurons. The results show that, within the tested voltage range from -55 to -35 mV, in all of these neurons, the activation time course of the current could be fit, after a brief delay, with a monoexponential function. The duration of delay from the start of the voltage command to the start of the extrapolated monoexponential fit was much smaller than predicted by the HH model. For example, in prefrontal cortex pyramidal neurons, at -46 mV and 12°C, the observed average delay was 140 μs versus the 740 μs predicted by the two-gate HH model and the 1180 μs predicted by the three-gate HH model. These results can be explained by a model with two closed states and one open state. In this model, the transition between two closed states is approximately five times faster than the transition between the second closed state and the open state. This model captures all major properties of the sodium current activation. In addition, the proposed model reproduces the observed action potential shape more accurately than the traditional HH model.

https://www.jneurosci.org/content/jneuro/26/2/671.full.pdf

Sodium Currents Activate without a Hodgkin and Huxley-Type Delay in Central Mammalian Neurons

When we look at a clock with a hand showing seconds, the hand sometimes appears to stay longer at its first-seen position than at the following positions, evoking an illusion of chronostasis. This illusory extension of perceived duration has been shown to be coupled to saccadic eye movement and it has been suggested to serve as a mechanism of maintaining spatial stability across the saccade. Here, we examined the effects of three kinds of voluntary movements on the illusion of chonostasis: key press, voice command, and saccadic eye movement. We found that the illusion can occur with all three kinds of voluntary movements if such movements start the clock immediately. When a delay is introduced between the voluntary movement and the start of the clock, the delay itself is overestimated. These results indicate that the illusion of chronostasis is not specific to saccadic eye movement, and may therefore involve a more general mechanism of how voluntary action influences time perception.

Voluntary action expands perceived duration of its sensory consequence

This study is based on the evidence that tests can be used as an educational tool to enhance learning, not just as an evaluation tool. There is a growing body of research that shows that participating in repeated testing improves learning, a phenomenon defined as Test-Enhanced Learning. The aim of the present study was to analyse the effect of the use of a test enhanced learning program integrated into a general psychology course for undergraduate nursing students and its interaction with the students’ test anxiety. 161 undergraduate nursing students attending a General Psychology course followed an educational program based on Test-Enhanced Learning methodology. Students were divided into two groups, an experimental group (TEL group) and a control group (Re-study group). TEL students took a multiple-choice test on the lecture topics. The Re-study group just read study material. Testing and re-study occurred at intervals of about a week after each lesson. TEL students received feedback immediately after each test. About two weeks after the end of the lessons, all the students took a final cumulative test on all the topics. Statistical analysis was used to analyse students’ performances. After the administration of the cumulative unit test, all the students took a graded examination. Students in the TEL group performed better than the controls, both in the final cumulative test and in a graded examination. TEL participants experienced better final cumulative test results than students not tested (M
 TEL
 = 23.11, M
 Re-study
 = 20.47, t(109.86) = −2.57, p < 0.05, r = 0.24). Test-Enhanced Learning program participation has a positive impact on exam performance (βG_Step1 = 0.46, p < 0.001). Finally, the analysis performed shows a slight moderating effect of test anxiety on Test-Enhanced Learning (βGxTA_Step3 = 0.15, p < 0.05). Test-Enhanced Learning can be an effective tool for promoting and enhancing learning. In fact, taking tests after studying produced better long-term retention and then better final test performance than re-reading without testing. Both students in the TEL group and the Re-study group with a high test anxiety level perform less well than colleagues with lower test anxiety. Nevertheless, students with higher test anxiety may obtain more benefits from participating in a Test-Enhanced Learning process than people with lower test anxiety. Further studies on larger and more representative samples are necessary in order to investigate the effect of test anxiety on Test-Enhanced Learning.

/pdf/test-enhanced-learning-analysis-of-an-experience-with-13no857jv0.pdf

Test-enhanced learning: analysis of an experience with undergraduate nursing students

The nursing shortage is of worldwide concern, with nursing student retention acknowledged as a priority. As a fundamental step towards exploring factors that can guide the implementation of strategic approaches to retain undergraduate nursing students and prevent their attrition, the aim of this study is to examine the motivation for choosing nursing studies of first-year nursing students within the theoretical framework of self-determination theory. We conducted a study at the Medical School of the University of Palermo. A total of 133 first-year nursing students completed a two-part questionnaire: a measure of socio-demographic aspects and an open question about their motivation for choosing nursing studies. Students’ responses were analysed using thematic analysis. Dimensional analysis was performed in order to verify an organization along one dimension, in agreement with the differentiation of the autonomous and controlled types of motivation of self-determination theory. A person-centred approach was utilised to define motivational profiles able to characterize clusters of students according to both quality and quantity of motivation. A set of 18 categories was developed. The factor analysis has shown that nursing students’ motivations can be organized along one dimension, in alignment with the differentiation of the autonomous and controlled forms of motivation of self-determination theory. Through adoption of a person-centred approach, four motivational profiles were identified: a) students with good quality motivation profile (high autonomous and low controlled); b) students with poor quality motivation profile (low autonomous and high controlled); c) students with low quantity motivation profile (low autonomous and low controlled); d) students with low quantity and poor quality motivation profile (i.e. prevalence of controlled motivation). Importance of this research includes the possibility to interpret nursing students’ reasons within the theoretical framework of self-determination theory, a well-grounded model able to offer useful information to academic nursing schools, in order to promote effective strategies to foster and support student motivation.

/pdf/self-reported-motivation-for-choosing-nursing-studies-a-self-z798xfbj8k.pdf

Self-reported motivation for choosing nursing studies: a self-determination theory perspective

The accurate perception/production of durations in the seconds and minutes range is important in a number of everyday activities, but the lack of direct experimental evidence on the neural circuits that could be involved has precluded the detailed elucidation of the underlying physiological mechanisms. We show, using a basic biophysical model of a timekeeping system and experimental data on time intervals produced or estimated under different conditions, that experimental values, variability, and distributions can be quantitatively explained in terms of a background synaptic activity such as that generated by attention. The model provides a plausible neural substrate for encoding time intervals, and the findings suggest how it may interplay at the single neuron level with the attentional system, to elaborate a subjective representation of the elapsing time.

https://www.physiology.org/doi/pdf/10.1152/jn.2001.86.6.2754

Quantitative Modeling of Perception and Production of Time Intervals

The efficient management of relational competences in healthcare professionals is crucial to ensuring that a patient’s treatment and care process is conducted positively. Empathy is a major component of the relational skills expected of health professionals. Knowledge of undergraduate healthcare students’ empathic abilities is important for educators in designing specific and efficient educational programmes aimed at supporting or enhancing such competences. In this study, we measured first-year undergraduate nursing students’ attitudes towards professional empathy in clinical encounters. The students’ motivations for entering nursing education were also evaluated. This study takes a multi-method approach based on the use of qualitative and quantitative tools to examine the association between students’ positive attitudes towards the value of empathy in health professionals and their prosocial and altruistic motivations in choosing to engage in nursing studies. A multi-method study was performed with 77 first-year nursing students. The Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) – Health Professions Student Version was administered. Students’ motivations for choosing nursing studies were detected through an open question and thematically analysed. Using explorative factor analysis and principal component analysis, a dimensional reduction was conducted to identify subjects with prosocial and altruistic motivations. Finally, linear models were tested to examine specific associations between motivation and empathy. Seven distinct themes distinguishing internal and external motivational factors were identified through a thematic analysis of students’ answers regarding their decision to enter a nursing degree course. Female students gained higher scores on the empathy scale than male ones. When students’ age was considered, this difference was only observed for younger students, with young females’ total scores being higher than young males'. High empathy scores were positively associated with altruistic motivational factors. A negative correlation was found between external motivational factors and the scores of the Compassionate Care subscale of the JSE. Knowing the level of nursing students’ empathy and their motivational factors for entering nursing studies is important for educators to implement training paths that enhance students’ relational attitudes and skills and promote the positive motivational aspects that are central to this profession.

/pdf/the-relationship-between-empathy-and-altruistic-motivations-1n44q4ify2.pdf

Linda Messineo

Papers

Test-enhanced learning: analysis of an experience with undergraduate nursing students

Self-reported motivation for choosing nursing studies: a self-determination theory perspective

Quantitative Modeling of Perception and Production of Time Intervals

The relationship between empathy and altruistic motivations in nursing studies: a multi-method study.

Game-based learning for education and training in the health sector