Routine and the Perception of Time.

Abstract

The authors investigated the influence of routine on people's estimation of time, testing the hypothesis that duration is remembered as being shorter when time is spent in a routine activity. In 4 experiments and 2 field studies, the authors compared time estimations in routine and nonroutine conditions. Routine was established by a sequence of markers (Study 1), variation of the task (Studies 2 and 3), or the number of repetitive blocks (Study 4). As hypothesized, the duration of the task was remembered as being shorter in routine conditions than in nonroutine ones. This trend was reversed in experienced (prospective) judgments when participants were informed beforehand of the duration-judgment task (Study 3). In Studies 5 and 6, the authors examined remembered duration judgments of vacationers and kibbutz members, which provided further support for the main hypothesis.The same space of time seems shorter as we grow older. . . . In youth we may have an absolutely new experience, subjective or objective, every hour of the day. Apprehension is vivid, retentiveness strong, and our recollections of that time, like those of a time spent in rapid and interesting travel, are of something intricate, multitudinous, and longdrawn-out. But as each passing year converts some of this experience into automatic routine which we hardly note at all, the days and the weeks smooth themselves out in recollection to contentless units, and the years grow hollow and collapse. (James, 1890, p. 625) In this work, we examine the influence of routine on people's estimations of time. A previous (unpublished) study found that people who routinely fly on planes felt safer and more secure and reported swifter passage of time during flights than did people who fly less often (Avni-Babad, 2001). With the current investigation, we attempt to gain a better understanding of the power of routine and its influence on time perception.

Time contracts and temporal precision declines when the mind wanders.

“…Mind wandering during tasks requiring precise timing of the environment, such as operating a motor vehicle (Yanko & Spalek, 2014), will deleteriously impact performance. In contrast, mind wandering during repetitive tasks (Avni-Babad & Ritov, 2003) or painful episodes (Kam, Xu, & Handy, 2014) may help them pass more quickly, thereby representing a specific valuable function of temporal contraction.…”

Temporal binding and internal clocks: No evidence for general pacemaker slowing.

“…A common assumption in internal clock models is that subjective time is modulated by attention, with greater attention paid to time passing resulting in more clock pulses accrued, which in turn leads to the experience of a subjectively longer interval (cf. the common adage "A watched pot never boils" or "Time flies when you are having fun", Avni-Babad & Ritov, 2003). This attentional modulation would of course have affected causal and noncausal trials equally, and indeed this is reflected by analogously less negative judgment errors on causal trials with an interval embedded before the trial, relative to causal trials with an interval embedded during the trial.…”

Ilusões temporais: Paradigma experimental

“…A duração dos estímulos ou intervalos utilizados varia imensamente entre os estudos. Consultando as tabelas em anexo pode-se observar durações tão curtas como 10 ms (Stoyanova & Bohdanecky, 1988) ou mais longas como 2 min (Avni-Babad & Ritov 2003). Genericamente, dentro do campo da percepção de tempo, a gama de durações mais utilizada varia entre os 100 ms e os poucos segundos (Grondin, 2010).…”

“…O participante é familiarizado com um intervalo com uma certa uma duração que representa a unidade temporal; as estimativas das durações são feitas como múltiplos dessa unidade temporal (e.g., Avni-Babad & Ritov 2003).…”

“…O interruptor deverá abrir apenas quando o evento termina, mas os desvios atencionais (i.e., repartição de recursos entre o processamento da informação temporal e não-temporal 14 ), poderão fazê-lo abrir e fechá-lo (várias vezes) ao longo do intervalo, reduzindo o número de pulsos a entrarem no acumulador (na memória de trabalho), sendo a duração estimada como mais curta 15 . Exemplo de ilusão temporal: tem sido sugerido que a sobrestimativa temporal promovida pela familiaridade devese à maior facilidade de processamento da informação não temporal dos estímulos que permite maior foco atencional na informação temporal (e.g., Avni-Babad & Ritov 2003;Rhodes & McCabe 2009;Stoyanova & Bohdanecky, 1988).…”