The Perception of Time: Basic Research and Some Potential Links to the Study of Language

Abstract

The article first discusses some recent work in time perception-in particular the distinction among prospective timing, retrospective timing, and passage of time judgments. The history and application of an "internal clock" model as an explanation of prospective timing performance is reviewed and contrasted with the different mechanisms needed for the other two types of time judgments. The article then discusses two areas suggesting relations between time perception research and language. The first is the idea that disturbances in the perception of duration, usually of very brief auditory stimuli, are associated with some language disorders. Another is the common use of metaphors for time, and the article relates these to the issue of whether a genuine "time sense" exists.Language is certainly not necessary for organisms to show sensitivity to the temporal structure of their environment or even to adjust their behavior to quite arbitrary temporal periodicities or constraints imposed by experimenters. For example, in the Pavlovian "inhibition of delay" procedure, animals receive long presentations of a neutral stimulus (such as a bell or a tone), and when the stimulus terminates, food is delivered. Pavlov (1927) noted that the prototypical conditioned response of salivation eventually comes to be localized in the later parts of the stimulus; that is, the animal learns something about how long the bell or tone lasts. In later experiments by others, animals were rewarded with food for responses, like key-pecks and lever-presses, only at a certain time after

The Psychology of Time Perception

“…More evidence for this came from Wearden ( 2008b ). Individuals watched clips from a fi lm for three diff erent lengths of time.…”

Effect of virtual reality on time perception in patients receiving chemotherapy

“…Distraction interventions divert attention toward enjoyable non-temporal cognitive tasks and away from the passage of time [41]. Attention is a limited cognitive resource; a certain amount of it must be dedicated to time perception to keep the switch between pacemaker and accumulator in the “on” position so that all pulses generated in the pacemaker reach the accumulator [12, 43].…”

“…Attention is a limited cognitive resource; a certain amount of it must be dedicated to time perception to keep the switch between pacemaker and accumulator in the “on” position so that all pulses generated in the pacemaker reach the accumulator [12, 43]. Distractions that divert enough attention from time perception to competing cognitive tasks can flip the switch to the “off” position during those tasks, causing some pulses to be lost [41]. This reduces the number of pulses collected in the accumulator during treatment, shortening its experienced duration [6, 12, 41], and ultimately leads to underestimation of time elapsed during treatment.…”

“…Distractions that divert enough attention from time perception to competing cognitive tasks can flip the switch to the “off” position during those tasks, causing some pulses to be lost [41]. This reduces the number of pulses collected in the accumulator during treatment, shortening its experienced duration [6, 12, 41], and ultimately leads to underestimation of time elapsed during treatment. Magnitude of underestimation is greatest when distractions involve highly complex tasks requiring considerable attentional engagement [6].…”

“…c PA model showing effects of distraction intervention on time perception in a stressful treatment environment: Intervention increases the patient’s sense of control (reducing rate of pulse generation in the pacemaker) and substitutes positive arousal for most of the treatment-associated negative arousal shown in b , resulting in lower values of experienced duration and underestimates of time elapsed. Figures are derived from Wittman and Paulus [43] (p. 8) and Droit-Volet and Gil [12] (p. 1944) and incorporate concepts from Chaston and Kingstone [6], Humphreys and Buehner [20], and Wearden [41]…”