Children's Representation of Long Duration: When Memory and Attention Meet in Processing Time

Abstract

The concepts of the memory and attentional models were examined in children's and adults' time perception in a long duration. One hundred twenty-one children in preschool through Grade 2 and 29 adults for Study 1 and 93 second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade students and 40 adults for Study 2 judged durations of tasks that varied in interest levels and cognitive demands. In Study 1, children overestimated but adults underestimated the movie that they found to be interesting. However, in Study 2, both children and adults consistently overestimated the duration of puzzles they found to be interesting. In a long duration, the findings were more in line with the memory model than with the attention model. A qualitative change also emerged in middle childhood in the way children kept track of time; this difference may influence the developing perception of long duration in children's representation. Implications of the findings are further discussed in examining the perception of long duration.