On symbolic temporal information: Beliefs about the experience of duration

Abstract

Judgments on the subjective duration of simple and complex imagined situations are studied. Four facets, concerning the evaluation ofthe situation (pleasantJunpleasant) and the characteristics of its events (many/few, variable/monotonous, difficultJeasy), are taken into account. These facets proved significant for duration judgments in previous studies in which subjects were exposed to situations varying with respect to one of them. In this paper, we study whether these timeperception facets have comparable effects on the symbolic temporal basis of duration judgments, that is, whether they allow one to account for differences in the beliefs about duration experience in imagined situations. Two approaches were chosen: (1) Three groups of subjects compared the durations of all possible pairs of situations characterized by facet elments x and y. The confusion probabilities could be scaled in one dimension for all groups. The facet elements defined intervals that were hierarchically nested. (2) The facets allowed us to distinguish 24 structuples. For each of them, a concrete situation was described in writing. Seventy-six subjects rated the subjective durations of the situations. The structuples led to a partial order that corresponded well to the duration ratings. Moreover, three of the facets showed significant main effects, and the fourth interacted significantly with two others. Finally, the facets were useful in explaining the similarity structure of the duration ratings.There is a fairly large but somewhat confusing literature on the effects of so-called nontemporal variables on duration judgments. The varied findings are partly due to differences in experimental tasks (e.g., Falk & Bindra, 1954;Ornstein, 1969;Schiff & Thayer, 1968;Schiffman & Bobko, 1974), different durations of the intervals to be estimated (e.g., Aschoff, 1985;Michon, 1975), different test paradigms (e.g., Hicks, Miller, & Kinsbourne, 1976;Zakay & Fallach, 1984), and different timejudgment methods (e.g., McConchie & Rutschmann, 1971). Moreover, the vast majority of published research examines the effects of only one isolated nontemporal variable on duration judgments. Also, most researchers seem to assume that the observers' estimations result only from the perceptual input during the interval to be judged and from cognitive processes directly associated with it. Hence, the subjects' abstract knowledge about the subjective experience of duration and its deviation from objective time is neither considered nor controlled.Recently, some researchers found it necessary to also take into account this abstract knowledge. For example, Fraisse (1981) distinguished between (1) perceived and/or memorized temporal information and (2) the knowledge of time (e.g., the knowledge of how much time is required Address reprint requests to Ingwer Borg, Fachbereich Psychologie, Iustus-Liebig-Universitiit, Otto-Behaghel-Strasse 10, 6300Giessen, West Germany. to change a flat tire) and parachronometric references provided by the action performed during the i...

Modern Facet Theory: Content Design and Measurement in Behavioral Research

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