Time Perception LOs Flashcards
What are the different kinds of elementary temporal / time experience
Simultaneity
Successiveness (doesn’t establish what comes first)
Temporal order (states what comes first then second etc.)
Subjective present (feeling of nowness)
Temporal continuity
Subjective duration / propensity (depends on mental load / attentional demand)
What is the perceptual moment and what is the James’ Doctrine of the Specious Present?
Perceptual moment: basic unit of perceptual experience, consists of set of relations among objects / actions. Meaning found in timing of units (man-eating shark vs shark-eating man). Perception is limited if time dimension were lost. Described by Coren et al. (1999)
Doctrine of Specious Present: the prototype of all conceived times is the specious present, the short duration of which we are immediately and incessantly sensible. Group of events we experience at any one time as “present” contains successive events spanning an interval. What we see we see as present, we see motion, motion occurs over an interval, what we see as present occurs over an
interval.
PROBLEM: we see a moving object in successive positions (not in simultaneous positions as a blur), therefore at each position the object must exist in a separate specious (or false) present
Describe the biological basis for the circadian rhythm
The body’s daily biological cycle, human free-running circadian rhythm found to be 24 hours and 11 minutes
circadian rhythm is reset by light each day thought process calledphotoentrainment - light considered to be primary Zeitgeber (time giver)
Amount of light needed to reset circadian clock in humans thought to be 1000 lux,
Important factors are: timing, duration, number and pattern of exposures to light, wavelength important: strong melatonin suppression by 460nm (blue light)
Retinohypothalamic tract connects eye to suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of hypothalamus
SCN inhibits pineal gland from producing melatonin which is the sleep hormone
Melatonin synchronizes activity in some gland and organs that regulate biological cycles eg. core temperature varies 1°C night-afternoon
Melanopsin: photosensitive pigment found in retina and some RGCs
Light goes to retina travels along retinohypothalamic tract to SCN which inhibits pineal gland from releasing melatonin
What is Hoagland’s Hypothesis and what factors affect our biological clock
Biological Clock: internal mechanism for perceiving time
Hoagland did study with wife: had feverish wife count to 60 to “measure” 1 minute, perceived duration depended on temperature. Hotter fever = counted faster, sped up subjective time perception = time crawls. Overestimated time duration.
Hoagland’s Hypothesis: brain has a biological clock that regulates metabolism which affects perception of time
Baddeley Experiment: tested scuba divers off coast of Wales in March (water was 4°C) being colder slows down subjective time perception = time flies. When asked to say when 60 s occured, 64-70 s would have passed.
Thought to involve basal ganglia and right parietal lobe, not cerebellum. Dopaminergic neurons involved
Implications in understanding disorders with impaired time perception: parkinson’s disease (reduction of dopamine in basal ganglia), huntington’s disease / ADHD (abnormal basal ganglia function), damage to right parietal lobe (impaired time perception), schizophrenia (abnormal dopaminergic neurons, eg. movement or internal monologue seems to happen before you initiate it brain credits outside cause (voices in head / body movements possessed = impairment in timing of events)
Factors Affecting:
- Temperature (cold = time flies, hot = time crawls),
- Stimulants (amphetamines, cocaine, caffeine) speed up internal clock = time crawls = overestimation of time duration eg. asked for duration of 60 s will report 90 s, but when asked to press a button for 12 s will press for only 8 s.
- Depressants (alcohol) anesthetics and some hallucinogens (THC) slow down internal clock = time flies = underestimate of time duration. Eg. when asked duration of 60 s will report 45 s, but when asked to press button for 12 s will press for 16 s
What are some estimates of the duration of the perceptual moment
Short-term intervals not dependent on SCN or 24-hour clock
Includes: neural activity, heartbeats, breathing, hormonal/metabolic activity, walking
Mach (1865) measured Weber’s law in temporal perception: observed that 30ms is lower limit for subjective durations,
well-trained motor tasks (eg. typing, playing piano) about 30ms
White (1963): looked at audition, presented clicks at different rates, observers estimated rate, high accuracy up to 5 clicks/second, rates of 25 clicks/second estimated to be only 6 or 7 clicks/seconds. Perceived rate: 1 stimulus per 150 ms
Efron (1967): looked at vision, presented two pulses of light: standard was 1ms comparison varied, task was which was longer, both perceived as equal until comparison reached 60-70 ms
Perceptual moment different for each modality AND different tasks
Fusion in auditions ~2ms, in vision ~40ms
What is the difference between prospective and retrospective judgements of propensity
Prospective Timing: observes are informed in advance that they will have to make a judgment about time (forwards in time)
Retrospective Timing: after an event, unexpectedly observers are asked to make a judgment about time (backwards in time)
Vierordt’s Law: When estimated retrospectively short intervals of time tend to be overestimated, long intervals of time tend to be underestimated
Point of indifference: duration of time at which perception of time matches interval of real time (~3s)
How does information-storage size theory explain time perception
Theory: amount of information picked up consciously and stored in memory determines perceived length of time, perception of time = how many memories able to be stored
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 occur - field 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 retained (or retained more efficiently) = shorter perceived duration
Results found in John Wearden experiment match storage-size theory: Part 1 = participants either watched 9 minutes of Armageddon (group A) or spent 9 minutes in simulated waiting room (group B) they then judged how quickly time seemed to pass compared with some subjective “normal” condition (time faster than normal in group A, slower than normal in group B), time flies when you are having fun Part 2: all participants read novel for 10 minutes. Part 3: participants made retrospective time judgment of part 1, Group A said time watching movie was longer than reading novel but Group B said time spent waiting was shorter than reading novel. Results: a time period (Group A) seems to fly when participants are in it (passage of time judgment) but is judged as relatively long after it has finished (retrospective time judgment), in looking back more things are remembered to have occurred and thus more time seems to have passed
Eg. Mulligan and 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
What are the components of Cognitive-Attentional Theory
Focus of attention directly affects temporal experience
Attention divided between: non-temporal information processor and a cognitive timer, is divided between doing the task and estimating time
Non-temporal information processor handles ongoing cognitive events
Cognitive timer processes temporal information
More attention given to time = greater perceived duration, slower time goes
Absorbing activities requiring effort = more information processing, less temporal awareness = time flies
Chaston & Kingston Experiment: participants performed prospective time estimation for visual search task, feature search (not demand attention), conjunction search (demands cortical attentional engagement), after a block of trials participants gave written estimate of block duration, conjunction = large underestimation of time. As attentional demand increased (with increased # of distractors in conjunction search) so did the underestimation of time. CONCLUSION: time flies when you are busy
What other factors affect time perception?
Affect: 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
Space: represent time in our minds as if it were in space.
Eg. Frassinetti et al. Experiment: 1) adapting phase: participants wore prismatic lenses, which induced a 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: inducing rightward orientation produced overestimation of time intervals, leftward orientation created underestimation of time intervals. Conclusion: temporal intervals represented in space
Age: time seems to pass faster as we age various possible mechanisms
neurological/physiological changes (decrease in dopamine throughout adulthood may influence time perception)
Brain worlds harder to deal with novelty; upon reflection period of increased activity seem to last longer (an elderly person who has ‘seen it all before’ may experience time as passing by more quickly)
We pay less attention to time as we age (kids count down 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 a 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)
