Situational context is important: perceptual grouping modulates temporal perception

Abstract

Subjective time of an event in the sub-second range is often compressed or dilated by the situational context created by preceding and succeeding stimuli. How such context distorts psychological time is still an open question. Here, we pursued this issue by examining whether the perceptual grouping among successive visual stimuli modulates the perceived duration. Using a duration comparison task, we asked observers to judge the relative duration of a target and a comparison item, and estimated the apparent duration of the target from the corresponding psychometric function. The target was temporally flanked by a preceding item and a succeeding item. In different conditions, the target was more similar to either the preceding or the succeeding item. Results showed that perceptual grouping based on similarity modulated perceived duration. Specifically, when the target was grouped with the preceding item, its subjective duration was shorter than when it was grouped with the succeeding item. Interestingly, this pattern was observed when the preceding and target items were kept constant while the succeeding item was manipulated, suggesting that the effect depends, to some degree, on the holistic perceptual grouping rather than on fragmented processes. These results demonstrate that the situational context is an important factor in shaping temporal codes, thus bridging the seemingly independent perceptual feature processes and temporal representation.

Synchronization as a biological, psychological and social mechanism to create common time: A theoretical frame and a single case study

“…The results show that in frontal midline areas, the amplitudes of the MMN are significantly larger for inter-stimulus intervals up to 3 s than for the longer inter-stimulus intervals. It can be concluded that a time window of 3 s is selective for pre-attentively processing sensory information in a privileged way and that information processing is temporally segmented, implementing in discrete sequential steps operative platforms for the creation of perceptual and conceptual identity and a "subjective present" Zhou, Yang, Zhang, Zhang, & Mao, 2015).…”