Psychophysics and the anisotropy of time
Section snippets
Introduction: The psychophysical study of time
Since the seminal work by Fechner (1860), psychophysics have proven to be an important methodology for the description and the understanding of time perception (Eisler, Eisler, & Hellström, 2008). Due to the application of psychophysical methods, a wealth of useful experimental tasks and paradigms have been developed to investigate the perception of time in animals and humans (Block and Grondin, 2014, Fraisse, 1984). Temporal bisection tasks have been used to study the impact of emotions on the
The anisotropy of time
For almost all physical qualities, the premise of experimental control over physical stimuli is valid, and therefore psychophysical studies have provided important insights into how humans perceive loudness, color, size, temperature, etc. However, when it comes to time, there is an essential difference between the physical and the psychological reality. Physical laws are time-reversal invariant, i.e., they do not imply a specific direction of time (Maccone, 2009, Reichenbach, 1956). They retain
Constraints in time perception experiments
The anisotropy of time has important consequences regarding the investigation of the relation between physical and psychological time. Many psychophysical methods are based on the implicit assumption that the researcher possesses absolute control over the presentation of physical stimuli in experiments. This presupposition is true for many physical qualities. We can deliberately manipulate the loudness of a sound or the size of a visually presented square. Furthermore, we are able to present
What is a duration?
In the previous sections, temporal intervals were dealt with as if they were independent physical stimuli, which can be presented in psychophysical experiments. On closer inspection, this view is not valid, and it might be objected that some of the raised concerns can be attributed to this simplifying but illegitimate approach. Factually, it is not appropriate to examine durations as if they were discrete physical stimuli. They should rather be considered as (temporal) properties of other
Conclusion: A view from nowhen
The aim of the present paper was to allude to some basic differences between the perception of time and the perception of other physical dimensions, which are caused by the anisotropy of time. Some of these differences have the potential to affect the results in timing experiments, especially in psychophysical studies designed to compare the experience of time and the experience of other qualities (e.g., Casasanto and Boroditsky, 2008, Riemer et al., 2014). The application of psychophysical
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Contraction bias in temporal estimation
2022, CognitionCitation Excerpt :Only at later stages, these concrete representations can be turned into abstract representations which can then be manipulated in working and long-term memory. In contrast, the cognitive representation of time is purely abstract from its onset and has no phenomenal existence outside memory (Riemer, 2015). A few studies have examined contraction bias effects in the time domain and specifically in duration estimation.
Cross-dimensional interference between time and distance during spatial navigation is mediated by speed representations in intraparietal sulcus and area hMT+
2022, NeuroImageCitation Excerpt :Many studies report an asymmetrical relationship, with time being significantly more affected by space than vice versa (Bottini and Casasanto, 2013; Casasanto and Boroditsky, 2008; Merritt et al., 2010). Others have argued that the apparent asymmetry reflects a confound of spatial stimuli being more salient than temporal stimuli (Cai and Connell, 2015; Homma and Ashida, 2015) or of spatial magnitudes being presented instantaneously without continuous accumulation (which is impossible for the dimension of time; Lambrechts et al., 2013; Riemer, 2015). Is has also been argued that the time-space asymmetry is an epiphenomenon of the fact that the processing of spatial information is behaviorally more relevant than the processing of temporal contingencies (Riemer et al., 2018).
Dissociable neural indices for time and space estimates during virtual distance reproduction
2021, NeuroImageCitation Excerpt :Notably, the iCNV in particular has previously been associated with attentional and arousal processes in task engagement (Tecce, 1972; Nagai et al., 2004; Fan et al., 2007), as well as time perception (Ng and Penney, 2014; Kononowicz et al., 2018). One reason for the difficulty in teasing apart temporal and spatial dimensions is the natural correlation of each; longer distances naturally take more time, following time's arrow (Riemer, 2015). Indeed, previous research has demonstrated that humans have great difficulty attending to spatial information without also considering temporal information (Glasauer et al., 2007; Kolesari and Carlson, 2018; Zach and Brugger, 2008).
The effect of feedback on temporal error monitoring and timing behavior
2019, Behavioural Brain ResearchCitation Excerpt :Thus, it seems as if participants consistently commit errors directed towards the start of the interval without being aware of these systematic errors. However, Riemer et al. [22–24] argued that the systematic underreproduction of time is not necessarily the result of an inherent misperception of time, but can alternatively be explained by a general judgment bias towards earlier responses. According to the authors, negative errors do not arise because shorter durations are more likely to be confused with the standard than longer durations, but only because they necessarily occur previous to longer durations [22].
The brain and the subjective experience of time. A voxel based symptom-lesion mapping study
2017, Behavioural Brain ResearchCitation Excerpt :Craig [19], in a theoretical essay, suggested that the neural substrate for awareness across time might be located in the anterior insular cortex, but also in this case the model addressed aspects quite far from the ecologically relevant construct of the sense of time. In fact, as recently pointed by Riemer [36], empirical research on time highlighted methodological problems mainly related to the lack of correspondence between psychological and physical time. Some tests of time estimation about ‘long’ time intervals are indeed available, but they have been devised to tap the ability of making general cognitive inferences (e.g., by questions such as ‘In how long time will an egg become solid?’ [37]),
Separable Representations for Duration and Distance in Virtual Movements
2024, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience