Time perception in human movement: Effects of speed and agency on duration estimation

Abstract

While the effects of synthesised visual stimuli on time perception processes are well documented, very little research on time estimation in human movement stimuli exists. This study investigated the effects of movement speed and agency on duration estimation of human motion. Participants were recorded using optical motion capture while they performed dance-like movements at three different speeds. They later returned for a perceptual experiment in which they watched point-light displays of themselves and one other participant. Participants were asked to identify themselves, to estimate the duration of the recordings, and to rate expressivity and quality of the movements. Results indicate that speed of movement affected duration estimations such that faster speeds were rated longer, in accordance with previous findings in non-biological motion. The biasing effects of speed were stronger for watching others’ movements than for watching one’s own point-light movements. Duration estimations were longer after acting out the movement compared to watching it, and speed differentially affected ratings of expressivity and quality. Findings suggest that aspects of temporal processing of visual stimuli may be modulated by inner motor representations of previously performed movements, and by physically carrying out an action compared to just watching it. Results also support the inner clock and change theories of time perception for the processing of human motion stimuli, which can inform the temporal mechanisms of the hypothesised separate working memory processor for human movement information.

Tapping to drumbeats in an online experiment changes our perception of time and expressiveness

“…Faster tempo has been linked to higher felt emotional arousal (Droit-Volet et al, 2013 ), while music perceived high in arousal level has been associated with high expressiveness (Fernández-Sotos et al, 2016 ). The current study is further in line with Allingham et al’s ( 2021 ) research, as they have found an association between increases in movement speed and a rise in perceived expressiveness.…”

“…The emotional expressiveness may also mediate how individuals perceive the passing of time in relation to the internal clock speed. Fast movements were perceived to be more expressive (Allingham et al, 2021 ), indicating that fast stimuli positively predicted the perceived expressiveness. This finding with visual movements is in line with auditory evidence where an association between tempo of the music and expressiveness was found (Fernández-Sotos et al, 2016 ).…”

Quantifying time perception during virtual reality gameplay using a multimodal biosensor-instrumented headset: a feasibility study

“…This allows for the analysis of head motion and orientation, which is crucial as head movements have been associated with influencing temporal perception and varying based on arousal and valence states (Behnke et al, 2021 ). In fact, the speed and nature of head movements can affect the perception of simultaneity between sensory events (Sachgau et al, 2018 ; Allingham et al, 2020 ) and can lead to recalibration of time perception in a virtual reality context (Bansal et al, 2019 ). To capture these dynamics, we extracted features from the x, y , and z signals of the accelerometer data, segmented into 2-s epochs with a 50% overlap.…”

Perceiving Tempo in Incongruent Audiovisual Presentations of Human Motion: Evidence for a Visual Driving Effect

“…The distributed account is supported by findings that audition has an advantage over vision and other sensory modalities in terms of duration discrimination (Grondin et al, 2008), reproduction (Gamache & Grondin, 2010), and estimation (Kanai et al, 2011). However, it should be noted that the domination of audition in temporal processing does not apply to all cases, particularly with biological trajectories or movements (Allingham et al, 2020).…”