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Prospective and Retrospective Duration Judgment: The Role of Information Processing and Memory

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Time, Action and Cognition

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASID,volume 66))

Abstract

Research comparing prospective and retrospective duration-judgment paradigms has produced diverse findings and conclusions. Two experiments reported here reveal that information-processing tasks influence duration judgment differently in the two paradigms. Experiment 1 shows that performing a more difficult task shortens prospective judgments but does not influence retrospective judgments. Experiment 2 shows that performing different kinds, rather than a single kind, of processing during a duration lengthens retrospective judgments but does not influence prospective judgments. Memory for nontemporal (stimulus) information processed during a time period cannot account for either prospective or retrospective duration judgment, because the pattern of effects and interactions is different. This finding rejects memory-storage models of duration judgment. Interactions of task and paradigm support a contextual-change model, which says that different kinds of contextual information subserve prospective and retrospective duration judgments.

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© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Block, R.A. (1992). Prospective and Retrospective Duration Judgment: The Role of Information Processing and Memory. In: Macar, F., Pouthas, V., Friedman, W.J. (eds) Time, Action and Cognition. NATO ASI Series, vol 66. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3536-0_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3536-0_16

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4166-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-3536-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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