Temporal Preparation Decreases Perceptual Latency: Evidence from a Clock Paradigm

Abstract

A clock paradigm was employed to assess whether temporal preparation decreases the time to detect the onset of a stimulus-that is, perceptual latency. In four experiments participants watched a revolving clock hand while listening to soft or loud target tones under high or low temporal preparation. At the end of each trial, participants reported the clock hand position at the onset of the target tone. The deviation of the reported clock hand position from the actual position indexed perceptual latency. As expected, perceptual latency decreased with target tone intensity. Most importantly, however, greater temporal preparation decreased perceptual latency in all four experiments, especially for soft tones, which supports rather directly the idea that temporal preparation diminishes the duration of perceptual processing.

Response specific temporal expectancy: Evidence from a variable foreperiod paradigm

“…However, one might object to the idea that specific temporal expectancy could indeed affect perception, but only the perceptual processing of simple stimulus features. Despite the fact that general temporal expectancy effects were observed for basic visual feature processing (Bueti, Bahrami, Walsh, & Rees, 2010;Rolke & Hofmann, 2007;Seifried et al, 2010) and for complex visual features (Correa, Cappucci, Nobre, & Lupiáñez, 2010a;Correa, Lupiáñez, Madrid, & Tudela, 2006a;Hackley, Schankin, Wohlschlaeger, & Wascher, 2007;Rolke, 2008), specific temporal expectancy might be restricted to perceptual processing of simple stimulus features.…”

“…Temporal order judgments are facilitated when the stimuli appear at an expected point in time (Bausenhart, Rolke, & Ulrich, 2008;Correa, Sanabria, Spence, Tudela, & Lupiáñez, 2006c), and intervals tend to be perceived as longer when they appear at expected times (Grondin & Rammsayer, 2003). A further account of perceptual temporal expectancy claims that temporal expectancy speeds up the detection of stimulus onset (early-onset hypothesis; see Rolke & Hofmann, 2007;Seibold, Bausenhart, Rolke, & Ulrich, 2011a;Seibold, Fiedler, & Rolke, 2011b;Seifried, Ulrich, Bausenhart, Rolke, & Osman, 2010).…”

Distorted subjective reports of stimulus onsets under dual-task conditions: Delayed conscious perception or estimation bias?

“…In this paradigm, a clock hand moves around a clock face on the screen while participants perform another task. At the end of each trial, participants are asked to indicate the position of the clock hand when a certain internal (e.g., Haggard & Cole, 2007;Pockett & Miller, 2007) or external (e.g., Joordens, van Duijn, & Spalek, 2002;Seifried, Ulrich, Bausenhart, Rolke, & Osman, 2010) event occurred. For the present purpose, the clock method offers two potential advantages over the use of visual analogue scales.…”

Time in action contexts: learning when an action effect occurs

“…At 250 ms after the action, a tone was presented as action effect. During the trial, participants saw a revolving clock hand (Libet, 1985;Seifried, Ulrich, Bausenhart, Rolke, & Osman, 2010;Wundt, 1887) and after each trial participants indicated the time of the action or of the effect tone. If participants knew in advance whether to judge the action or the effect, the action was perceived somewhat later in time and the effect was perceived somewhat earlier.…”