Effects of attention and external stimuli on duration estimation under aprospective paradigm

Abstract

The study examined whether there are two independent cognitive factors affecting duration estimation. In two experiments, we manipulated simultaneously and independently two variables, namely, the level of attention to the lapse of time and the quantity of perceived changes, and examined their effects on duration estimation under a prospective paradigm. The duration was estimated to be longer when subjects attended to the lapse of time than when they attended to tasks during the target interval (Experiments 1 and 2). The characteristics of external stimuli irrelevant to the tasks, namely, the rate of presentation of sounds (Experiment 1) and the velocity of moving dots (Experiment 2), affected duration estimation, even though the attention level was little changed by these stimuli. These findings suggest that there are at least two independent cognitive factors that affect duration estimation.

The heart beat does not make us tick: The impacts of heart rate and arousal on time perception

“…Kladopoulos, Hemmes, and Brown (2003), for example, asked participants to estimate time intervals while reading words aloud and compared these intervals to estimates produced without a secondary task. Time estimates were shorter when an additional task was performed, which is consistent with results of other studies (Burle & Casini, 2001;Champagne & Fortin, 2008;Chaston & Kingstone, 2004;Kojima & Matsuda, 2000;Sawyer, 2003).…”

A Relationship Between Time Perception and State-Anxiety

“…Numerous studies continually support cognitive pacemaker-accumulator models of time perception, showing that estimations of durations approximately two seconds or longer rely primarily on working memory and that participants tend to make more time error estimations when they are presented with visual and auditory distractions. 6 Scalar Expectancy Theory (SET), which is a widely accepted pacemaker-accumulator model of time perception, hypothesizes that intervals of time are perceived when an individual consciously attends to them. 3 Further, because attention and working memory work conjunctively, any exogenous factors that alter attention, emotional arousal in particular, will also alter the perception of time.…”

Attention to the Passage of Time

“…Given this, it is extremely tempting to think that attention to time or its passage should be understood in terms of attention to perceptible change. Fraisse takes this view, proposing that ‘direct time judgments [are] founded immediately on the changes we experience’ (1963, 234) and that ‘attention to the lapse of time affects duration estimation only by changing the number of perceived changes’ (Kojima and Matsuda 2000, 145). More recent glosses of attention to time or temporal information also place stimulus change centre stage.…”