Retrospective duration estimations for variant and invariant events in field situations

Abstract

SUMMARYRetrospective duration estimations were investigated immediately after participation in everyday, naturalistic activities which ranged between 4 seconds and 80 minutes in length. Those events which remain invariant over time were more accurately estimated than events which are variable in length. Support was found for Vierordt's Law (1868); short events were overestimated and longer events were underestimated. Imagery-rehearsal had no signi®cant eect on duration estimation. Age of participants was not related to duration estimations. Women gave reliably longer estimations than men, but no reliable dierences were found for gender when estimations were based on events which were frequently experienced in familiar settings. Con®dence±accuracy correlations were reliable for judgements of invariant events but not for variant events. This study investigated the accuracy of individuals' retrospective estimations of the duration of everyday activities immediately after participating in such exercises. The major issues examined whether the magnitude of estimation errors and the nature of estimation failures (under-or overestimation) were aected by the predictability and regularity of invariant naturalistic activities versus the unpredictability of variant activities. Both relatively short and long event durations were examined. This investigation was prompted by theoretical and practical concerns that emerged during a civil trial involving wage and hour litigation. At issue was the probability of workers in a meat packing company to give accurate estimations of the time it took to don sanitary workclothes, to exchange knives before or after the work shift, and to wash and remove protective equipment and garments at the end of the workday. Workers were asked to estimate both the total amount of time given to these activities and to the amount of time devoted to each separate task. These generic estimations were made after delays of several months or years. An expert witness for the complainant testi®ed in part that because these activities were highly familiar and predictable activities workers' duration estimates would correspond to their actual duration with relatively high accuracy. This conclusion was based solely on generalizations from traditional, highly controlled laboratory experiments on time estimation rather than from ®eld experiments on everyday memory, or from

Testing the state-dependent model of subsecond time perception against experimental evidence

“…Regarding the indifference point, the duration at which subjective and objective duration coincide despite a slope smaller than one, we found a relatively constant value around 500 ms for all of the different parameter sets as long as the same range of intervals (50 ms to 750 ms) is used for training the weights of the readout network. This value differs significantly from the arithmetic mean of all trained intervals (400 ms), which is supported by parts of the experimental literature [64, 101, 103], but not others [6, 28, 64]. However, the indifference point does increase when a larger range of intervals has been used for training (50 ms to 2000 ms), suggesting that the indifference point can be shifted by training.…”

Testing the state-dependent model of subsecond time perception against experimental evidence

“…Regarding the indifference point, the duration at which subjective and objective duration coincide despite a slope smaller than one, we found a relatively constant value around 500 ms for all of the different parameter sets as long as the same range of intervals (50 ms to 750 ms) is used for training the weights of the readout network. This value differs significantly from the arithmetic mean of all trained intervals (400 ms), which is supported by parts of the experimental literature [64, 101, 103], but not others [6, 28, 64]. However, the indifference point does increase when a larger range of intervals has been used for training (50 ms to 2000 ms), suggesting that the indifference point can be shifted by training.…”

Person Recall in Field Settings1

“…Theoretical and empirical investigation of duration estimations date back to the 19th century with Vierordt's (1868) discovery that short intervals tend to be overestimated and longer ones tend to be underestimated. Several forensically related studies have supported Vierordt's law (e.g., Loftus, Schooler, Boone, & Kline, 1987;Yarmey, 2000), and it was expected that the present experiment would replicate these results. The major contemporary model on the psychology of time suggests that retrospective duration estimations depend mainly on the retrieval of contextual information that was stored in association with event information during the experienced time period (Zakay & Block, 1997).…”

Predictors of Self-reported Confidence Ratings for Adult Recall of Early Life Sun Exposure

“…In comparison, activities such as ''camp,'' ''trips/vacations,'' and ''work/chores'' were more specific and structured. Psychological studies show that memories of specific and regularly repeated (structured) daily activities (e.g., doing laundry or eating breakfast) are stored in a permanent part of the brain's memory (36), and people find it easier to recall and report how often they engaged in these activities (37). Because the demand for cognitive effort is negatively correlated with confidence in reporting (10,17,23,24), it is not surprising that our findings showed that the durations of specific and structured activities were reported more confidently than the durations of vague and unstructured activities.…”

Testing the state-dependent model of subsecond time perception against experimental evidence

“…Regarding the indifference point, the duration at which subjective and objective duration coincide despite a slope smaller than one, we found a relatively constant value around 500 ms for all of the different parameter sets as long as the same range of intervals (50 ms to 750 ms) is used for training the weights of the readout network. This value differs significantly from the arithmetic mean of all trained intervals (400 ms), which is supported by parts of the experimental literature [64, 101, 103], but not others [6, 28, 64]. However, the indifference point does increase when a larger range of intervals has been used for training (50 ms to 2000 ms), suggesting that the indifference point can be shifted by training.…”

Person Recall in Field Settings1

“…Theoretical and empirical investigation of duration estimations date back to the 19th century with Vierordt's (1868) discovery that short intervals tend to be overestimated and longer ones tend to be underestimated. Several forensically related studies have supported Vierordt's law (e.g., Loftus, Schooler, Boone, & Kline, 1987;Yarmey, 2000), and it was expected that the present experiment would replicate these results. The major contemporary model on the psychology of time suggests that retrospective duration estimations depend mainly on the retrieval of contextual information that was stored in association with event information during the experienced time period (Zakay & Block, 1997).…”

Predictors of Self-reported Confidence Ratings for Adult Recall of Early Life Sun Exposure

“…In comparison, activities such as ''camp,'' ''trips/vacations,'' and ''work/chores'' were more specific and structured. Psychological studies show that memories of specific and regularly repeated (structured) daily activities (e.g., doing laundry or eating breakfast) are stored in a permanent part of the brain's memory (36), and people find it easier to recall and report how often they engaged in these activities (37). Because the demand for cognitive effort is negatively correlated with confidence in reporting (10,17,23,24), it is not surprising that our findings showed that the durations of specific and structured activities were reported more confidently than the durations of vague and unstructured activities.…”

Testing the state-dependent model of subsecond time perception against experimental evidence

“…Regarding the indifference point, the duration at which subjective and objective duration coincide despite a slope smaller than one, we found a relatively constant value around 500 ms for all of the different parameter sets as long as the same range of intervals (50 ms to 750 ms) is used for training the weights of the readout network. This value differs significantly from the arithmetic mean of all trained intervals (400 ms), which is supported by parts of the experimental literature [64, 101, 103], but not others [6, 28, 64]. However, the indifference point does increase when a larger range of intervals has been used for training (50 ms to 2000 ms), suggesting that the indifference point can be shifted by training.…”

Person Recall in Field Settings1

“…Theoretical and empirical investigation of duration estimations date back to the 19th century with Vierordt's (1868) discovery that short intervals tend to be overestimated and longer ones tend to be underestimated. Several forensically related studies have supported Vierordt's law (e.g., Loftus, Schooler, Boone, & Kline, 1987;Yarmey, 2000), and it was expected that the present experiment would replicate these results. The major contemporary model on the psychology of time suggests that retrospective duration estimations depend mainly on the retrieval of contextual information that was stored in association with event information during the experienced time period (Zakay & Block, 1997).…”

Predictors of Self-reported Confidence Ratings for Adult Recall of Early Life Sun Exposure

“…In comparison, activities such as ''camp,'' ''trips/vacations,'' and ''work/chores'' were more specific and structured. Psychological studies show that memories of specific and regularly repeated (structured) daily activities (e.g., doing laundry or eating breakfast) are stored in a permanent part of the brain's memory (36), and people find it easier to recall and report how often they engaged in these activities (37). Because the demand for cognitive effort is negatively correlated with confidence in reporting (10,17,23,24), it is not surprising that our findings showed that the durations of specific and structured activities were reported more confidently than the durations of vague and unstructured activities.…”