Some factors in estimating short time intervals.

Impaired Numerical Ability Affects Supra-Second Time Estimation

“…Finally we wanted to assess whether DD's impairment in supra-second temporal estimation might result from a difference in the strategies used to perform the task. Since counting is a commonly used strategy to estimate supra-second intervals (e.g., Brown et al, 1995;Gilliland & Martin, 1940), which might be defective in DDs (Butterworth, 2003(Butterworth, , 2010Kaufmann, 2008;, we reasoned that they might rely on different strategies to estimate supra-second durations. However, in the post-experimental debriefing all DDs as well as their controls reported that they relied on counting to estimate the supra-second intervals despite not being instructed to do so, and despite possible difficulties that DDs might have with counting.…”

“…Furthermore, even when fully developed, counting in DDs may elicit an abnormal emotional response such as stress (Rubinsten & Tannock, 2010). When typical numerically developed individuals need to perform supra-second timing estimation, they often rely on counting strategies (Brown et al, 1995;Gilaie-Dotan, Kanai & Rees, unpublished observations;Gilliland & Martin, 1940) that allow them to estimate slightly better supra-second intervals (Grondin et al, 1999(Grondin et al, , 2004Rakitin et al, 1998; but see . Studies investigating the effectiveness of counting found that counting is advantageous for estimating intervals longer than 1.18 s but not for sub-second intervals (Grondin et al, 1999(Grondin et al, , 2004 and that musicians with extensive musical training reproduce supra-second intervals more accurately than non-musicians, whether relying on counting or singing (Grondin & Killeen, 2009).…”

“…In the context of timing and number processing, supra-second timing -but crucially not sub-second timing -often relies on strategies involving numerical processes. For example, counting is a frequently used strategy to estimate suprasecond durations (Gilliland & Martin, 1940; sometimes referred to as 'chronometric counting' , see Rakitin et al, 1998;Wearden & McShane, 1988), and other numerical operations such as adding and subtracting are also used, especially for supra-second intervals in the order of minutes or hours. Interestingly, even though counting is a simple numerical skill typically acquired during childhood, people with developmental impairment in numerical processing (developmental dyscalculia -DD) often have difficulty with counting and acquire this skill at later developmental stages (Butterworth, 2003(Butterworth, , 2010Kaufmann, 2008;).…”

Processing of temporal duration information in working memory after frontodorsal tumour excisions

“…Indeed, there is evidence that acquisition, representation, and processing of temporal information in neural systems presumably differ from the processing of object or spatial stimulus features. For example, unlike stimulus dimensions like color and shape, temporal representations are acquired dynamically subserved by the use of effective encoding and monitoring strategies (Gilliland & Martin, 1940;Kileen & Weiss, 1987) and are thus specifically sensitive to attentional manipulations (Casini & Ivry, 1999;Mangels et al, 1998;Zakay & Block, 1996). The involvement of these strategic operations might have rendered the executive monitoring of duration information more sensitive to frontal lobe damage than the respective operations on spatial information.…”

“…Yet, acquisition and representation of temporal information in neural systems presumably differ fundamentally from the processing of object or spatial stimulus features. Representations of temporal duration are acquired dynamically, demanding attentional gating until stimulus off-set and thus are specifically sensitive to the use of effective encoding and attentional allocation strategies (Gilliland & Martin, 1940;Kileen & Weiss, 1987;Niki & Watanabe, 1979;Zakay & Block, 1996). Since the classification task demanded additional strategic monitoring of attentional resources, a higher degree of impairment in frontal lobe patients is predicted for temporal duration classification as compared to the spatial task.…”