Time Perception Important Terms

Question 1

Protensity

Answer 1

subjective duration of time, is one of the elementary time experiences, depends on mental load and attentional demand

Relate to other temporal experiences described by Poppel: simultaneity, successiveness, temporal order, subjective present, temporal continuity

Question 2

Event / Perceptual Moment

Answer 2

basic unit of perceptual experience stated by Coren et al (1999), consists of set of relations among objects and actions, meaning is found in the timing of units, perception is limited if the time dimension were lost

Eg. words man-eating shark vs shark-eating man: diff meaning due to diff timing of words

Question 3

Doctrine of the Specious Present

Answer 3

defined by William James, group of events we experience at any one time as “present” contains successive events spanning an interval. Problem with this is that we see a moving object in successive positions not simultaneous positions as a blur and therefor at each position the object must exist in a separate specious present

Eg. what we see we see as present, we see motion, motion occurs over an interval, what we dee present occurs over an interval

Question 4

Circadian Rhythm

Answer 4

the body’s daily biological cycle, controlled by the retinohypothalamic tract connecting to the suprachiasmatic nucleus of the hypothalamus which inhibits the pineal gland from producing melatonin

Eg. in humans our free-running circadian rhythm it is thought to be 24 hours and 11 minutes
Eg. heliotropes exhibit opening and closing of leave in absence of sunlight - due to some inner biological clock

Question 5

Photoentrainment

Answer 5

resets the circadian rhythm everyday by exposure to light, light is considered to be the primary Zeitgeber (time giver)

Amount of light needed to reset circadian clock in humans is thought to be 1000 lux, however timing, duration and pattern of exposure is also important

Question 6

Suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN)

Answer 6

in the hypothalamus, receives info from the retinohypothalamic tract, regulates our circadian rhythm, inhibits the pineal gland from producing melatonin

Question 7

Pineal Gland

Answer 7

tiny endocrine gland, secretes the hormone melatonin, helps regulate the circadian rhythm, is inhibited by the SCN

Question 8

Melatonin

Answer 8

hormone secreted by the pineal gland, the sleep hormone, synchronizes activity in some glands and organs that regulate biological cycles, can see strong suppression by 460 nm light (blue light)

Eg. core temperature varies 1°C night-afternoon due to melatonin

Question 9

Melanopsin

Answer 9

photosensitive pigment found in retina, in some RGCs (2%), involved in photoentrainment, projections to SCN and intergeniculate leaflet (IGL) of the LGN which connects to the SCN

Eg. mice without functioning rods and cones still show entrainment due to melanopsin

Question 10

Biological Clock

Answer 10

internal mechanism for perceiving time

Question 11

Hogland’s Hypothesis

Answer 11

brain has a biological clock that regulates metabolism, which affects perception of time

Eg. had feverish wife count to 60 to measure 1 minute, hotter fever had her count faster, the perceived duration depended on temperature, higher temperature speeded up subjective time perception (time crawls), overestimate time duration (world move slowly around you)

Question 12

Prospective Timing

Answer 12

observers are informed in advance that the will have to make a judgment about time

Question 13

Retrospective Timing

Answer 13

after an event, unexpectedly, observers are asked to make a judgment about time

Eg. Vierordt’s Law asked people to estimate time retrospectively and found short intervals to be overestimated and long intervals to be underestimated

Question 14

Point of Indifference

Answer 14

duration of time at which perception of time matches interval of real time (~3 seconds)

Question 15

Information Size Theory

Answer 15

the amount of information picked up consciously and stored in memory determines perceived length of time, perception of time = how many memories able to store.

Amount of info processed depends on: filled vs unfilled intervals (expectancy = increased vigilance = greater temporal awareness = longer perceived duration), number of events (constant interval judged to be longer the more sounds that occurred - filled-duration illusion), stimulus complexity (seeing shapes with more internal angles = longer perceived duration, familiar/predictable tasks = accurate time perception), efficiency of coding and storage (more info retained = longer perceived duration, less info pertained (retained more efficiently) == shorter perceived duration)

Eg. Mulligan / Schiffman experiment. Presented ambiguous line drawing (droodle) for 60s. Task: study / remember it, then judge duration using magnitude estimation. Time interval judged 16% shorter if preceded by a cue. Implication: cue activates a scheme for drawing that reduces its complexity and allows for greater efficiency processing

Question 16

Filled-Duration Illusion

Answer 16

is a variable that can change the amount of info processed in information size theory. A constant interval is judged to be longer the more sounds that occur

Question 17

Cognitive-Attentional Theory

Answer 17

Focus of attention directly affects temporal experience, attention is divided between non-temporal information processor and cognitive timer. Attention divided between doing task and estimating time.

More attention given to time = greater perceived duration (slower time goes)

Absorbing activities requiring effort = more info processing, less temporal awareness = time flies

Eg. Chaston and Kingstone experiment. Participants performed prospective tie estimation for visual search task: feature search (not demand attention), conjunction search (should demand cortical attentional engagement, after block of trials participants gave written estimate of block duration. Conjunction search resulted in large underestimation of time. As attentional demand increased (by increasing # of distractors in conjunction search) so did underestimation of time. Conclusion: tie flies when you are busy

Question 18

Non-temporal information processor

Answer 18

handles ongoing cognitive events, a part of the cognitive attentional theory

Question 19

Cognitive Timer

Answer 19

processes temporal information, apart of the cognitive attentional theory

Question 20

Affect

Answer 20

other factors influencing time perception. More emotional events may seem to take longer

Eg. staring at an angry face for 5 seconds feels longer than staring at a neutral one

Question 21

Space

Answer 21

other factor influence time perception. Represent time in our minds as it if were space

Eg. Frassinetti et al. experiment. 1) adapting phase: participants wore prismatic lenses which induced 10° shift of the visual field left or right, performed several different spatial-orienting tasks 2) aftereffect phase: visual scene appeared to be shifted in opposite direction of adaptation, participants asked to estimate time intervals. Results: induced rightward orientation of visual/spatial attention produced overestimation of time intervals. A leftward orientation created an underestimation of intervals. Temporal intervals represented horizontally in space

eg. Mandarin speakers represent past as above, future as below (according to writing)

Question 22

Age

Answer 22

other factor influencing time perception. Time seems to pass faster as we age.

Possible mechanisms are:
neurological/physiological changes (decrease in dopamine throughout adulthood may influence time perception)

Brain works harder to deal with novelty; upon reflection, periods of increased activity seems to last longer (an elderly person who has “seen it all before” may experience time as passing more quickly)
We pay less attention to time as we age (kids countdown the days to their birthday)

Time pressure/stress (research shows that if you feel there is not enough time to get things done, time is passing more quickly)

Lifetime may serve as reference level (a year for a 4-year old is 25% of their lifetime; a year for a 60-year old is about 2% of their lifetime)