Asymmetry of the discrimination function for temporal durations in human subjects

• Authors: J. Wackermann , J. Spati
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Ten human subjects were comparing durations of pairs of visual stimuli in a two-way forced-choice task. Mean durations of presented time intervals were ~3 s ('short') or ~6 s ('long'); the duration ratio was varied at nine levels. The Weber fractions for the short and long durations were approximately equal, ~0.22. The ratio of subjective equality was almost exactly unity for the short durations, but it was significantly reduced (~0.76) for the long durations. This asymmetry of the discrimination function indicates time-dependent change of internal representations of past durations, and is well compatible with the 'dual klepsydra model'. Model-based estimates of the internal time representation loss rate, derived from the present data, are in a good agreement with values obtained from earlier studies on duration reproduction.

Keywords

EN

DUAL KLEPSYDRA MODEL   DURATION   HUMAN   TIME PERCEPTION  

Discipline

• EXPERIMENTAL_BIOLOGY_&_MEDICINE: EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY & MEDICINE

• Publisher: Marceli Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis
• Year: 2006
• Volume: 66
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 245-254
• Document Type: ARTICLE
• Publication order reference: Jiri Wackermann, Department of Empirical and Analytical Psychophysics, Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg i.Br., Germany