Time perception

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

Repetition, expectation, and the perception of time

Abstract: Prior experience with a stimulus profoundly affects how it is processed, perceived, and acted upon. One striking finding is that repeated items seem to last for less time than novel or rare ones. This link between the processing of stimulus identity and the perception of stimulus duration has important implications for theories of timing, and for broader accounts of the organization, purpose, and neural basis of perception. Here, we examine the nature and basis of the repetition effect on subjective duration. Contrary to unitary accounts which equate repetition effects with implicit expectations about forthcoming stimuli, new work suggests that first-order repetition and second-order repetition–expectations differentially affect the perception of time. We survey emerging evidence from behavioural studies of time perception and neuroscientific studies of stimulus encoding which support this view, and outline key questions for the future.

Deficits in Temporal Processing Associated with Autistic Disorder

Abstract: Currently idiopathic autism is typically diagnosed according to an observational assessment of certain behavioral, social, and cognitive tendencies across dimensions of language, social interaction, imaginative play, and restricted or repetitive cognitions and behavior. Parent interview is required to confirm presence of specific tendencies within the first 3 years of life. There is, as yet, no bio-medical test or marker for autism, although certain neurological, genetic, and physiological differences are known. There are often common co-morbid disorders, such as problems with sleep, motor function and attention-hyperactivity. An individual is diagnosed along spectrum of impairment (autistic disorder or autism spectrum disorder). Thus any psychological theory of autism is required to describe differences, and similarities, across a range of behavioral, social and cognitive abilities, within and between affected individuals. Arguably the three most dominant theories of autistic disorder relate to weak central coherence (or information processing), executive functioning, and theory of mind. There may be another hitherto, rather unacknowledged possibility: a deficit in temporal processing. An adaptive sensitivity to the duration of events, and time between them, is critical to adaptive cognitive, behavioral, and social function. There are anecdotal and clinical reports of problems with time in autistic disorder, and successful applied behavioral educational and therapeutic supports with this population often include external signals to indicate the passage of time, temporal structure, and upcoming events. Currently, the empirical literature on temporal processing in autistic disorder is relatively scant, and encompasses findings spanning a range of psychology; neurological, genetic, behavioral, and cognitive, observational, and computational assessments. These include reports that children with autism experience difficulties imaging past and future changes of a current situation and understanding that successive events are part of a unitary process; differences in temporal reproduction and duration perception (in the interval range); and electrophysiological reports of disordered temporal binding of stimulus input, apparently over extended periods (than is typical). These findings are usually complementary, although vary greatly in the nature of the methods and analysis used (for a review, see Allman and Meck, 2011). There is preliminary evidence from data modeling to suggest that aspects of the perception of duration might be “developmentally delayed” in this population (see Allman et al., 2011). Consistent among these aforementioned findings is the interpretation of results within the context of a deficit in (some aspect of) temporal processing in autistic disorder (e.g., Boucher et al., 2007). These range from suppositions that affected individuals experience problems thinking about time and higher temporal cognition, to notions that there are fundamental differences in the quality of the “subjective present” as it relates to the temporal processing of sensory information. Clock gene anomalies have been related to sleep, memory, and timing problems in autistic disorder. There have been several attempts to assert a hypothesis of temporal processing disturbance in autistic disorder, both within the discussion of published reports, or in more speculative accounts which go so far as to describe diagnostic features of autistic disorder as manifestations of atypical aspects of temporal processing (for details, see Allman and DeLeon, 2009). However, there is as yet, no well-defined profile of temporal processing abilities in these individuals, and no sufficiently specified theory. Perhaps the appeal of a temporal deficit hypothesis of autism might be its ability to assimilate the traditional, and well supported accounts of autism into one, encompassing and testable hypothesis. It might also be possible to account for diagnostic features of the disorder. For instance, atypical social synchrony and temporal patterning may reduce the quality of social bonding, joint attention, and the to- and fro of social reciprocity, and communication (the latter are heavily implicated in autism). Differences in the ability to integrate sensory inputs and events over time may create problems with perception, learning and memory, and create problems of weak central coherence. Deficits in temporal processing might influence and be related to known differences in patterns of local and global information processing (couched within information-processing traditions), and executive functions (e.g., episodic memory, planning). Pathological restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests, rituals and routines, might otherwise have adaptive significance, such that they serve to parse or regulate temporal processing and compensate for a failure to predict events, and reduce posited disorientation in time. The relative length and complexity of rituals or routines has previously been posited to correspond to the extent (boundary) of temporal thought in affected individuals. Assuming that sensitivity to duration is related to our subjective sense of time, then autistic problems with imaginative play, empathizing, and theory of mind might be otherwise considered related to deficits in aspects of temporal processing – being able to export oneself into the mind of another person likely requires some form of “mental time travel.” It is important to stress that to-date the study of temporal processing in autism is in its infancy, however a temporal deficit hypothesis of autistic disorder does not appear premature given the relevant literature. At a more general level, there is little doubt that increased knowledge of temporal processing in autism is both necessary and likely fruitful both for the scientist, and the affected individual who has the potential to benefit from improved social and non social temporal supports. Collectively, there are reasonable, and promising grounds to support a hypothesis of autism based on deficits in temporal processing.

Role of the medial temporal lobe in time estimation in the range of minutes.

Abstract: This study examined the role of medial temporal lobe structures in verbal estimation and production of time intervals Left medial temporal lobe lesions produced deficits in both tasks, whereas right medial temporal lobe lesions only disturbed time production Although both tasks require adequate use of chronometric units, they seem to be subserved by distinct cognitive processing and to depend on different neural substrates Verbal estimation of intervals in retrospect seems to depend mainly on contextual memory, and production of intervals depends more specifically on the mental load devoted to time These findings, documenting for the first time the role of each temporal lobe in duration estimation within the range of minutes, are discussed in light of memory-based and attentional models of time

The effect of attention and working memory on the estimation of elapsed time

Abstract: Psychological models of time perception involve attention and memory: while attention typically regulates the flow of events, memory maintains timed events or intervals. The precise, and possibly distinct, roles of attention and memory in time perception remain debated. In this behavioral study, we tested 48 participants in a prospective duration estimation task while they fully attended to time or performed a working memory (WM) task. We report that paying attention to time lengthened perceived duration in the range of seconds to minutes, whereas diverting attention away from time shortened perceived duration. The overestimation due to attending to time did not scale with durations. To the contrary, increasing WM load systematically decreased subjective duration and this effect scaled with durations. Herein, we discuss the dissociation between attention and WM in timing and scalar variability from the perspective of Bayesian models of time estimations.

The perception of time and situated engrossment

Abstract: This paper concerns the relationship between objective and subjective time. Ordinarily one's perception of time is synchronized roughly with the time of clocks and calendars (synchronicity), but under certain conditions it seems that time is passing very slowly (protracted duration). We used two different methods to obtain personal narratives concerning the experience of protracted duration