Disturbance of time perception caused by auditory masking

Abstract

Subjects (N=6) were asked to push a key (button) and time an interval after they listening to a sequence of sound (two buzzers) at one interval from a side (left or right) of headphone speakers. The time between the onset of the last buzzer and that of the key tap was defined as an anticipation time. The coefficient of determination between the interval and the anticipation time was calculated to evaluate accuracy of the anticipation. As a result, there was no laterality in the anticipation accuracy. However, when auditory masking was added to either side of headphone speakers, only the left side masking significantly reduced the anticipation accuracy. Thus, auditory masking caused disturbances with laterality to interval memory. These results suggest that the auditory interval memory, i.e. a working memory for the time perception is lateralized.