Effects of attention manipulation on judgments of duration and of intensity in the visual modality

Abstract

The "attentional model" of time estimation assumes that temporal judgments depend on the amount of attention allocated to the temporal processor (the timer). One of the main predictions of this model is that an interval will be judged shorter when attention is not allocated to the temporal parameters of the task. Previous studies combining temporal and nontemporal tasks (dual-task method) have suggested that the time spent processing the target duration might be a key factor. The less time devoted by the subject to the temporal task, the shorter the judged duration. In the two experiments presented here, subjects were asked to judge both the duration of a visual stimulus and an increment in intensity occurring at any time during this stimulus. In the second experiment, trials without intensity increments were added. The main result is that the judged duration was shorter when the increment occurred later in the stimulus or did not occur. In those cases, subjects had been expecting increment occurrence during most part of the stimulus and thus had focused for a shorter time on stimulus duration. We propose that attention shifts related to expectancy and to detection of the increment reduce subjective duration.

How do changes in speed affect the perception of duration?

“…The temporal processor accumulates "subjective time units" or pulses from a pacemaker (Zakay, 1989), and subjective duration is related to the attention given to time: greater temporal processing entails greater accrual of subjective time units and, in turn, longer apparent duration. Conversely, directing attention away from time -for example, by requiring judgments about some non-temporal aspect of the stimulusshortens apparent duration (Casini & Macar, 1997;Macar et al, 1994).…”

Temporal order in memory and interval timing: An interference analysis

“…A shortening of perceived time with increasing difficulty of concurrent processing was obtained with a wide range of tasks involving perceptual (Brown, 1985;Casini & Macar, 1997;Coull, Vidal, Nazarian, & Macar, 2004;Field & Groeger, 2004;Macar, 2002;Zakay, 1993), memory (e.g., Fortin & Couture, 2002;Fortin & Massé, 1999;Hicks & Brundige, 1974;Rammsayer & Ulrich, 2005), and verbal (McClain, 1983;Miller, Hicks, & Willette, 1978;Zakay, 1989) processing.…”

“…Over a certain period of time, missing cues will lead to a general decrease in the number of accumulated temporal cues, hence shorter perceived duration. This attentional allocation model accounts for numerous results in time estimation research, where underestimation is directly related to the level of difficulty of concurrent nontemporal tasks (Fortin & Massé, 1999;Sawyer, Meyer, & Hauser, 1994;Zakay, Nitzan & Temporal order in memory and timing 4 Glickson, 1983) or to the proportion of attention deliberately allocated to nontemporal features of a stimulus (Casini & Macar, 1997;Coull, Vidal, Nazarian, & Macar, 2004).…”

Tracking time with song and count: Different Weber functions for musicians and nonmusicians

“…The contemporary model of the internal clock cited most often comprises a pacemaker emitting pulses that are accumulated by a counter (Killeen & Weiss, 1987;McAuley & Jones, 2003;Rammsayer & Ulrich, 2001). The accumulation of pulses in the counter is assumed to be under the control of a switch mechanism that is affected by the amount of attention allocated to time (Casini & Macar, 1997;Macar, Grondin, & Casini, 1994). Finally, judgments are based on the comparison of these accumulations with a criterion that had been established by a history of training.…”