“School of Cognitive Sciences”
Back to Papers HomeBack to Papers of School of Cognitive Sciences
| Paper IPM / Cognitive Sciences / 8710 |
|
||||||||||
| Abstract: | |||||||||||
|
In most models of interval timing, there is a central clock, which is considered to
be highly protected from the effects of external stimuli. However, many studies
have reported such effects and different theories are proposed to explain the
observations. These include the effect of arousal, attention sharing, memory load
and information processing on central clock as well as change in the speed of the
pacemaker. In this study, we used regular vibro-tactile stimuli with different
frequencies in a "duration reproduction task" to investigate the effect of stimulus
content on interval timing. Results showed that subjects overestimated the
duration as a function of test stimulus frequency. A significant correlation
between increasing the test frequency and overestimation of subjective time was
observed. We further investigated the effect of blank and filled gaps with various
durations on time estimation. Analysis revealed that regardless of gap duration,
subjective time increased in the filled gap condition, compared to the blank gap.
This effect was independent from contextual stimuli and correlated to the mean
number of stimuli during the temporal interval rather than rate of stimulus
presentation.
Download TeX format |
|||||||||||
| back to top | |||||||||||
