Elsevier

Cognitive Psychology

Volume 41, Issue 3, November 2000, Pages 254-311
Cognitive Psychology

Regular Article
Expectancy, Attention, and Time

https://doi.org/10.1006/cogp.2000.0738Get rights and content

Abstract

Seven experiments examine the influence of contextual timing manipulations on prospective time judgments. Subjects judged durations of standard vs comparison time intervals in the context of a preceding induction (context) sequence. In some experiments, the rate of the induction sequence was systematically manipulated relative to the range of to-be-judged standard time intervals; in others, the induction sequence was omitted. Time judgments were strongly influenced by the rate of an induction sequence with best performance occurring when the standard time interval ended as expected, given context rate. An expectancy profile, in the form of an inverted U, indicated that time estimation accuracy declined systematically as a standard interval differed from a context rate. A similar expectancy profile emerged when the context rate was based on a harmonic subdivision (one-half) of an expected standard interval. Results are discussed in terms of various stimulus-based models of prospective time judgments, including those which appeal to attentional periodicities and entrainment.

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    This research was sponsored, in part, by a National Science Foundation grant, BCS-9809446, awarded to the second author. The authors are indebted to Maya Kennard, Mark Moody, and Scott Newman for assisting in data collection and to Susan Holleran, Jennifer Hoffman, Edward Large, Noah Mackenzie, Devin McAuley, Rosalee Meyer, and Peter Pfordresher for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article. Special thanks are extended to Bruno Repp, who offered a great many helpful comments on an earlier version of the article.

    Address correspondence and reprint requests to Ralph Barnes, Department of Psychology, 142 Townshend Hall, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210. E-mail: [email protected].

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