Temporal Generalization under Time Pressure in Humans

Abstract

In two experiments, participants performed a temporal generalization task in which they were asked to decide whether or not the durations of comparison stimuli were different from those of standard stimuli (750 ms, 1,000 ms, or 1,250 ms). One half of the participants was instructed to respond as quickly as possible, while the other half received no instruction concerning the speed of response. The relationship between stimulus duration and the time of response and the effect of time pressure on duration discrimination were examined. Response time increased as a linear function of the duration of the to-be-judged stimuli until a certain instant, which was defined as T2 = s/(1-b), where s refers to the internal representation of the standard duration and b to the decision threshold. Moreover, the participants systematically overestimated the presented intervals if they were asked to respond as fast as possible when the standard duration was either 1,000 ms or 1,250 ms, but not when the standard duration was 750 ms.

The Psychology of Time Perception

“…For example, deciding whether a stimulus has the same duration as a standard in temporal generalization is almost always made after the stimulus has fi nished (but see Klapproth & Müller, 2008 ;Klapproth & Wearden, 2011 ), as are other types of judgements such as the verbal estimation of duration. Th e term "remembered duration" as a substitute for retrospective timing is also less than ideal, as memory for the duration of stimuli and other events can be the focus of interest even in a study involving prospective timing; see, for example, Wearden and Ferrara ( 1993 ) and Ogden, Wearden, and Jones ( 2008 ), both mentioned in an earlier chapter.…”

Time and decision making in humans

“…In a recent article, Klapproth and Müller (2008) used response times to detect not only which temporal decisions were made, but also when they were made. They required subjects within a temporal generalization task to make time judgments either normally, taking as much time as they wanted, or as quickly as possible, regardless of whether all the stimuli judged had actually been terminated.…”

“…Moreover, the time course of temporal decision making should be looked at more thoroughly, since it might give more insight into what is actually processed in temporal processing. Analyzing real-time processes in temporal decision making by using quantitative decision models has been discussed by Klapproth (2003b) and Klapproth and Müller (2008).…”

Towards a Process Model of Temporal Generalization

“…However, the model does not describe or predict the time one needs to make a temporal decision. An attempt to characterize the time course of temporal decisions was made by Klapproth and Müller (2008). In their experiments, participants carried out a temporal generalization task, where one group was encouraged to make a temporal judgment as quickly as possible, whereas the other group was not instructed to make a fast judgment.…”