Time perception

About: Time perception is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1918 publications have been published within this topic receiving 87020 citations.

The nature of sensory time perception – centralised or distributed?

Abstract: Using psychophysical methods and human subjects, this work aims to investigate the role of human sensory systems in the perception and passage of time. Specifically, I question the centralised nature of timing and whether a central clock exists to mediate incoming timing signals across the different sensory modalities. The alternative is that our timing mechanisms are embodied within distributed, modality-specific networks, each operating in a dedicated and independent manner. In my first experiment subjects were exposed to a range of rhythms presented to audio, visual and tactile sensory modalities, and were asked to reproduce a test rhythm via a tapping device. Subjects were able to adapt to a range of rhythms; however, the resulting after-effects were only evidenced when the adapting and test sensory modalities matched. My second experiment questioned how we construct sensory rhythms and, using the same method of rhythm adaptation, I used a single empty interval as a test stimulus. Results show that adapting to a given rhythmic rate strongly influences the temporal perception of a single empty interval. This questions the seemingly unique nature of rhythm, suggesting that adaptive distortions in perceived rate of signals within a sequence are, at least in part, a consequence of distortions in the perception of the inter-stimulus interval between the sequence’s component signals. My third experiment focused on more complicated rhythms in the form of anisochrony. I found limited observable after-effects as a result of exposing subjects to patterned rhythms across auditory, visual and tactile sensory modalities. The final experiment demonstrated significant after-effects following exposure to perfectly interleaved auditory and visual rhythms. These results collectively demonstrate mechanisms actively underpinning human perception of time and importantly, present evidence of dynamically distributed mechanisms linked to each sensory modality and processing incoming timing signals in a dedicated manner.

Time perception a function of sex and age

Abstract: Past, present and future time perceptions kre compared among six, eight and ten year old boys and girlsj using the story­ line procedure. Twenty subjects from eachjage group, ten boys and ten girls, were granted parental permission to parti­ cipate at a public elementary school. Thej subjects were in terviewed individually and asked to complete three stories. Each story characterized a different time |:ense frame of reference. The subjects were also asked tip estimate a given lapsed time interval of five minutes. The!results suggest that age, not sex significantly determines time perception development. Significant age differences were found in the child's perception of past and future time as well as esti­ mates of the five minute time„interval. The older the child. the more complete and comprehensive the time perception. Specifically, past and future are defined significantly more distally, and the five minute estimations ploser approximate the true value. Additionally, those children who perceive ■ ■ ! a more distant past also project a more distant future. The results of this study have implications for education and cognitive processes, and are discussed herein. This dis cussion stresses the need to update and continue develop mental time perception research. |