Abstract This study explored the effect of verbal cues, and of the expectations they create, on perceived speed and duration using audiovisual stimuli across two experiments. In both experiments, participants viewed identical stimuli of two different durations, featuring a female cartoon-like avatar speaking in German. Through instructions, participants were led to expect that the stimuli will be presented in various speeds, although there were no actual speed variations. In Experiment 1, participants reproduced the duration of each stimulus and rated its speed on a 1–9 scale. The results showed that the speed instructions significantly affected both speed perception and reproduced durations, with stimuli presented as “fast” being rated as faster and reproduced as shorter, while those presented as “slow” being rated as slower and reproduced as longer. Experiment 2 focused exclusively on the time reproduction task to rule out the possibility that speed information retained in memory influenced participants’ reproduced durations in Experiment 1, as they were requested to first reproduce the duration and then rate the speed. The results of Experiment 2 were similar to those of Experiment 1, suggesting that verbal cues alone even without actual changes in speed or duration — can influence perceived durations, highlighting the role of expectations in shaping time perception.
Abstract All human action is guided by when to act and is refined over time via feedback. However, in the real world, feedback is often ambiguous; how we learn to time in the face of imprecise feedback has been relatively underexplored. Here, participants were required to produce target durations with variable feedback limits; they were told their performance was ‘short’ or ‘long’ if differing by more than 5%, 10% or 20% of a target duration, and ‘good’ otherwise. This provided limits on the precision of feedback to the participants. We show that, despite differences in the feedback threshold, participants were able to accurately produce target durations on average. Furthermore, while participants were sensitive to feedback, even when given ambiguous feedback telling the participant they performed ‘good,’ they were still, in general, more accurate in their following production. This demonstrates a sensitivity to timing irrespective of feedback, important to understanding how people time intervals, and perform actions generally.
Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic brought unprecedented disruptions to our lives, with lockdowns redefining our physical spaces, our social interactions and our relationship to time. The Blursday database, an international empirical research, explored how the lockdown situation affected perception of time along with psychological factors. Previous studies using this database have mainly applied univariate analyses, assessing each time perception task independently or comparing predefined participant groups. Here, we employed a multivariate approach (i.e., unsupervised machine learning) to identify distinct temporal profiles characterized by unique patterns across multiple time perception tasks. We then examined how these profiles relate to psychological factors (e.g., mood, mindfulness), exploring the relation between time perception and psychological adaptation during the first COVID-19 lockdown in France. We identified two temporal profiles with similar demographic variables and confinement severity indices. The first profile has an underestimation of retroduration timing and perceive the future distances (week and month) as closer compared to the second profile. The first profile also has lower scores of depressions, present-fatalistic, daytime dysfunction related to sleep quality and higher score of mindfulness than the second profile. This is among the first studies to adopt an integrated multivariate approach to investigate the relationship between time perception and psychological adaptation during a global lockdown. This approach demonstrated how different aspects of time perception are interdependent, and that distinct temporal profiles are linked to specific psychological adaptations in confinement situations. In this perspective, time perception tasks might be a complementary tool for psychological adaptation evaluation.
Abstract It has been argued that judgments of the speed of the passage of time (PoTj) and judgments of duration (Dj) are based on distinct mechanisms. This claim is often inferred from the lack of significant correlation between these two types of temporal judgment. The aim of the present experiment was to further examine the relationship between PoTj and Dj within a prospective temporal judgment paradigm, by testing the potential interference effect of Dj on PoTj, and vice versa. Participants were asked to make two successive judgments for the same stimulus duration in the range of seconds and minutes. The second judgment was either Dj or PoTj, while the first judgment was congruent (i.e., the same type of temporal judgment) or incongruent (i.e., the opposite type). The results clearly showed no significant interference between the two types of judgment in the two duration ranges. In addition, in the incongruent conditions, there was no significant correlation between Dj and PoTj, when Dj was rated first. Overall, these results confirm the absence of a consistent relationship between these two types of temporal judgment. Nevertheless, the complexity of PoTj and its relationship to duration is further discussed.
Abstract Building on Hoerl and McCormack’s account of temporal cognition, this paper extends their framework by proposing a developmental model grounded in empirical findings. We argue that time emerges from integrating two systems: a feature-based classificatory system and a spatially grounded object individuation system. Learning to use spatial indexicals enables children to construct an abstract spatial reference frame, which allows propositional reference and requires constraining predications to avoid contradiction. This necessity gives rise to complete coordinate system mappings (CSMs), whose ordered succession constitutes the first representational structure of temporal sequence. In this way, temporal reasoning develops as a formal consequence of maintaining consistency between spatial and classificatory cognition. Finally, we discuss what this account implies for central ontological ideas associated with time.
Rhythmic interpersonal coordination during group music-making requires individuals to adapt, anticipate, and attend to each other's action timing. These 'ensemble skills' display marked individual differences despite being grounded in fundamental sensory-motor and cognitive processes. The current study investigated these individual differences by applying the ADaptation and Anticipation Model (ADAM) of sensorimotor synchronization to data from a joint drumming task requiring paired participants to synchronize under conditions of varying regularity (constant vs variable tempo) and leadership instructions (leader assigned vs not assigned). We thus tested how temporal adaptation (reactive error correction), anticipation (temporal prediction), and attention allocation (to information about 'self' and 'other' timing) are modulated by task goals and strategies, in addition to personality traits. Results indicated that dyadic synchrony was lower for variable tempi than constant tempi independently of leadership assignment. ADAM parameter estimation revealed that, at steady tempi, dyadic synchrony increased with increasing pair-composite estimates of mutual anticipation, self-other integration, and asymmetries in adaptation and anticipation (i.e., complementary high and low values across pair members). With tempo changes, synchrony decreased with mutual adaptation and increased with asymmetrical anticipation when leader-follower roles were assigned, and increased with asymmetries in anticipation when leadership was not assigned. Personality traits of locus of control and empathic perspective-taking had interactive effects with ADAM parameter estimates on synchrony. Furthermore, locus of control was linked specifically to self-other integration while perspective-taking was associated with temporal prediction. Overall findings provide evidence for a gradient of sensory-motor to social-cognitive ensemble skills that enable complex real-time interpersonal coordination.
Abstract While it is commonly believed that people underestimate how long tasks take, past laboratory studies often reveal a bias towards overestimation. One reason for this discrepancy could be that laboratory research is vulnerable to the “central tendency of judgment”, where predictions of short tasks are biased toward the center of a reference frame that includes larger tasks. We developed a task paradigm involving multiple predictions of brief tasks, enabling participants to establish a more relevant reference frame. We expected that extensive experience with duration feedback would make people underestimate due to a) using the most typical outcomes (e.g., the mode) as predictions, which gives underestimation when durations are right-skewed (mode < mean), or b) neglecting infrequent longer-lasting tasks. However, bias was not discernible from zero in Studies 1, 3 and 4, while Studies 2 and 5 indicated overestimation, contrary to our hypotheses. Overall, it does not appear that underestimation has been concealed by the central tendency of judgment in past studies, and our analyses did not support the above notions regarding typical outcomes used as predictions or the neglect of longer-lasting tasks.
We report the results of two investigations concerning the frequency and nature of observed epochs of time distortion. This exploration identified both personal and environmental factors associated with the frequency rates of reported incidents. Sources of potential causation of these distortional phenomena and their degree of homogeneity were evaluated. Commonly noted anecdotal distortions of time associated with highly stressful, life-threatening circumstances were confirmed. However, the overall frequency of temporal nonalignments, or acute episodes of time desynchronization, appear much more diffuse than these threat-related effects alone. For those who did associate time distortion with stress, we established a significant relationship in which, across the range of experienced stress, time slowed by a consistent factor of 2.3 in both investigations, just beyond a doubling effect. An important outcome of the present research is that incidents of time distortion prove to be more frequent and diverse than has previously been observed or recognized. There are obvious commonalties between episodes of time distortion and other performance changes under high levels of stress. We propose that the measurement tool implemented in the present survey procedure can be further refined and subsequently applied to establish an even more detailed picture of the occurrence of distortions in duration in everyday life as well as in unusual, uncertain, and threateningly dangerous situations.
Exposure to elevated noise levels is common nowadays and can cause cognitive and emotional disturbances. Therefore, this study investigates the effects of brief white-noise (WN) exposure on time perception, mood, emotion, and executive function. Fifteen healthy university students were subjected to the control (40-50 dBA) and WN (80-85 dBA) conditions. Participants completed retrospective temporal judgments (using the Visual Analogue Scale) and prospective time production tasks (using a stopwatch), mood and emotion assessments, and the Trail Making Test (TMT) for evaluating executive function. WN significantly prolonged prospective time production, while retrospective temporal judgment remained unchanged. Mood and emotion assessments revealed significant deterioration under WN, with irritability emerging as a key predictor and explaining 30.7% of the variance in prospective time production. However, executive function, measured by the TMT, showed no significant changes. Notably, subgroup analyses indicated that individuals with lower levels of distortion in prospective time production experienced a decline in cognitive flexibility under WN conditions. These findings suggest that while brief WN exposure distorts prospective time production (potentially without explicit awareness) and adversely affects mood and emotion, its impact on executive function appears limited and varies by individual susceptibility.
Serial dependency refers to the relationship between two sequential judgements; our judgement of one object is at least in part determined by our prior responses and experiences. In this brief article, serial dependency in visually flashing frequency judgement is assessed. Showing a slower, rather than faster, anchor frequency prior to a judged frequency is shown to result in a slower reported frequency of a given flashing stimulus. Further, prior judgements, irrespective of these anchors, are also shown to affect perceived frequency; a'Slow' prior judgement resulted in a reportedly slower current flash frequency. This finding extends prior research into the domain of frequency judgements, and shows assimilative, rather than contrastive judgement effects of both objective anchor frequencies and prior judgements.
Agents organize their behavior based on temporal regularities. However, interval timing is far from perfectly calibrated. Each time an agent undertakes a timing attempt, it may deviate from an ideal temporal state, producing durations that fall either below or above it. To adjust behavior adaptively, agents are presumed to correct their timing by monitoring both current and past deviations from this ideal state. We tested this assumption using a differential-reinforcement-of-low-rates (DRL) task with rats, where rewards are given for waiting a minimum (target) time before a response. Our results show that subjects are relatively successful in sustaining waiting times above the target interval after two consecutive rewarded attempts. However, they tend to struggle to break out of a streak of premature responses following consecutive failures. Interestingly, after a win-fail sequence, subjects frequently correct the error, while a fail-win sequence tends to impede sustained waiting above the target time. Some of these behavioral dynamics predict individual differences in global indices, like mean waiting time (a proxy for inhibitory control), the spread of waiting times (a proxy for timing precision), and the number of rewards obtained. Nevertheless, these dynamics do not account for session-by-session performance fluctuations within subjects. Our findings that rats adjusted their timing performance based on previous trials demonstrated operationally defined error correction, providing implicit support for error monitoring. These trial-by-trial adjustments challenge theories that view timing attempts as randomly sampled from stationary distributions; instead, distributions of waiting times may emerge from continuous corrections of deviations from an ideal state. In addition, neither error correction nor adaptive adjustment was universally present in our data, suggesting that mechanisms beyond temporal error monitoring and reward maximization contribute to timing performance.
When a target stimulus is probabilistically predicted by the duration of a preceding interval, participants typically adapt to this regularity: they respond faster to frequent than to infrequent combinations of interval duration and target in alternative forced-choice (AFC) tasks. This effect is referred to as time-based expectancy. Time-based expectancy has previously been demonstrated predominantly in scenarios employing visual targets. As human time processing differs between perceptual modalities, further investigation of time-based expectancy in other modalities needs to be addressed. In a pre-registered two-experiment study, we investigated time-based expectancy in the tactile modality. In an AFC task, participants responded by finger presses to vibrotactile finger stimulations. When both targets appeared equally often after both interval durations, we did not observe any pre-existing associations between duration and target (Exp. 1). When interval duration predicted the target, participants showed a significant time-based expectancy effect (Exp. 2). We discuss potential implications for the timing mechanisms underlying time-based expectancy in the tactile domain.
How confidence ratings influence the perceived timing of sensory events in perceptual decision-making remains poorly understood. Metacognition - our ability to reflect on cognitive processes - is often assessed via confidence ratings in perceptual tasks. However, accessing meta-cognitive information can influence task performance, a phenomenon known as the reactivity effect. Here, we examine the presence of metacognitive reactivity via confidence ratings on the tem-poral binding window (TBW) in two multisensory time perception tasks that use identical stimuli but require different judgments: temporal order judgment (TOJ) and simultaneity judgment (SJ). Thirty-five participants (aged 18-39) completed TOJ and SJ tasks with and without confidence rat-ings via Prolific, an online participant recruitment platform. Psychometric functions were fitted to response and confidence data to determine the TBW and the point of subjective simultaneity (PSS). Adding confidence ratings improved performance in both tasks, with this effect being stronger in the SJ. TBWs significantly differed between TOJ and SJ tasks. Despite differences between the two tasks, TBWs from both were strongly correlated, as were the width parameters of confidence-derived curves, suggesting shared underlying mechanisms in both perceptual and metacognitive processes. These findings highlight the utility of confidence ratings in evaluating TOJ and SJ performance, revealing both task differences and commonalities. Finally, we reflect on the advantages and chal-lenges of online data collection via Prolific, including its diverse participant pool and timing precision limitations.
Whether in music, language, baking, or memory, our experience of the world is fundamentally linked to time. However, it is unclear how temporal information is encoded, particularly in the range of milliseconds to seconds. Temporal processing at this scale is critical to prediction and survival, such as in a prey anticipating not only where a charging predator will go but also when the predator will arrive at that location. Several models of timing have been proposed that suggest that either time is encoded intrinsically in the dynamics of a network or that time is encoded by mechanisms that are explicitly dedicated to temporal processing. To determine how temporal information is encoded, we recorded neural activity in primary visual cortex (V1) as mice (male and female) performed a goal-directed sensory discrimination task, in which patterns of subsecond stimuli differed only in their temporal profiles. We found that temporal information was encoded in the changing population vector of the network and that the space between these vectors was maximized in learned sessions. Our results suggest that temporal information in the subsecond range is encoded intrinsically and does not rely upon specialized timing mechanisms.
Research on school canteens has predominantly prioritized nutrition, overlooking student well-being, including both cognitive and affective components. Nevertheless, lunchtime is a pivotal moment for students to recharge amidst a lengthy school routine. Among various factors affecting children’s well-being, time perception, especially the judgment of passage of time (PoTJ), remains underexplored. Thus, this study examined 614 young French students, utilizing a cross-sectional design and linear regression analyses to test the hypothesis that mealtime satisfaction and well-being in the canteen will predict PoTJ, with higher satisfaction and well-being predicting faster judgments of passage of time. Results revealed significant correlations among the variables, indicating that positive emotions and higher satisfaction are linked to a faster perception of time passage. Notably, preschool students perceived time as passing more quickly compared to older students. Additionally, differences among elementary- and middle-school students further underscore the impact of mealtime satisfaction on PoTJ. This study is the first to investigate children’s PoTJ and well-being. Results are discussed considering the context with potential influences of emotional experiences and student — adult interactions. The findings provide a foundation for future research, suggesting the need for tailored interventions and policy reforms to enhance well-being during school mealtimes.
Several studies highlighted how social isolation due to pandemic restrictions influenced subjective experience of solitude, negative affective states, and the subjective time awareness. The main aim of the present study was to investigate, for the first time, the interplay among social isolation due to quarantine, psychological distress, perceived loneliness, and the subjective perception of the passage of time during Covid-19 pandemic. A total of 810 participants, aged 18–60, were administered a set of socio-demographic questions, the University of California, Los Angeles, Loneliness Scale-Version 3 (for perceived loneliness), the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (for general psychological distress), and the Subjective Time Questionnaire (for the subjective passage of time). Results revealed higher levels of psychological distress in participants in quarantine. Female gender, and both perceived loneliness and stress were significant positive predictors of time pressure. Furthermore, lower education level, younger age, quarantine, higher levels of loneliness, depression and anxiety, and lower levels of stress were significant predictors of time expansion. Lastly, the mediation analysis showed that he subjective experience of solitude indirectly affected time pressure through stress, and time expansion through depression, anxiety, and stress. Taken together these results demonstrated that the subjective experience of loneliness, but not social isolation per se , had an impact on individual experience of time, also acting indirectly through negative affective states. This study reveals how psychological variables impact on subjective experience of time during specific trauma, but it also suggests how the changes of social environment impact on psychological distress and time perception.
Despite anecdotal reports that time flies in virtual reality (VR), only a few studies have found that participants underestimate time in VR in comparison with a matched non-VR control condition. Across three experiments, we attempt to replicate one of these studies (Mullen and Davidenko, 2021) and to identify factors that may mediate the effect of VR on time estimation. Participants were assigned to play a simple video game for a specified duration (five or 10 minutes) in one of two display conditions (VR or conventional monitor), and we recorded the actual durations they produced. Experiments 1 and 2 both failed to replicate a VR-induced underestimation effect, suggesting that the previously reported effect is not reliable. However, the VR group in Experiment 2 produced significantly longer intervals than the VR group in Experiment 1. This difference may be related to changes in virtual camera size, which inversely determines the simulated scale of the environment in VR. Experiment 3 tested this possibility by assigning participants to estimate time in VR conditions that used a small, medium, or large virtual camera. Participants tended to underestimate time in smaller-camera (i.e., larger environment) conditions relative to larger-camera (smaller environment) conditions. Collectively, these results suggest that controlled experiments may fail to detect VR-induced time compression because the virtual environments that they use as stimuli (specifically, those that can be viewed from a fixed perspective in a non-VR control condition) lack the immersive scale of commercial VR experiences.
There have been numerous reports of people experiencing events as speeded up or slowed down; for example, other people are perceived moving as if in fast-forward mode. This paper proposes a possible explanation for that. One part of the explanation is an information structure on the subsecond scale that represents recent perceptual history with events located and connected in time by means of time marker information. The other part is a calibration mechanism for updating the time marker information. It is proposed that a perturbation to the calibration mechanism may result in time markers being updated significantly more or less frequently than normal, resulting in apparent speeding or slowing, respectively, of events. Things are perceived not as happening more quickly than normal, which is impossible, but as having happened more quickly than normal, because of the incorrect time marker information in the historical register.
Given the growing societal interest in how our environment influences time perception, in a world that is more volatile and going at a faster pace than ever, there is an increased need for the understanding of how attentional states and awareness impact time perception. In the current study we aimed at assessing the role of both internally and externally directed attention on temporal production. We devised an experimental paradigm aimed at replicating attentional states and awareness comparable to those occurring during meditation. Based on the Sphere Model of Consciousness and the hierarchy of meditation types, we hypothesize a gradual slowing down of time production, from simply observing a stimulus, to a focused awareness similar to Focused-Attention meditation and, finally, to an embodied state similar to Open-Monitoring meditation. To test this hypothesis, participants underwent three experimental conditions during time production and were divided into two groups. In line with our hypothesis, we found progressively longer produced durations in these experimental conditions, and this was further emphasized in the group of participants asked to listen to their own breath compared to those listening to external sounds. These highlight the importance of different types of attentional states and levels of awareness when addressing time perception. In particular, bodily awareness seems to be of key importance in ‘slowing down’ our subjective perception of time, which may be useful in an increasingly fast-paced world.
Three experiments tested the conjecture that people carrying out a temporal bisection experiment have an ‘equalizing tendency’, that is, the idea that they are motivated to try to equalize the number of SHORT and LONG responses they produce. All three experiments varied instructions between two conditions. In one case, people were instructed to try to equalize, in the other it was emphasized that any proportion of SHORT and LONG responses was acceptable. Experiment 1 used short and long standards of 200 and 800 ms with comparisons spaced linearly, logarithmically, or reverse logarithmically between them, in three different groups. No effect of instructions was found in any group. Experiment 2 once again used 200 and 800 ms as the standards but had a range of comparisons closely spaced around the midpoint (500 ms), so most were ambiguous with respect to the standards. Again, no effect of instructions was found. Experiment 3 used smaller long/short ratios (300/200 ms or 800/533 ms). Once again, no effect of instructions was found. The three experiments together also replicated some previously obtained effects such as those of stimulus spacing and long/short ratio.
