Perceptual asymmetries in a time estimation task with emotional sounds

Four experiments investigated potential interactions between emotional content and perceptual asymmetries in the estimation of short time intervals. In all experiments, the word "bower" was presented monaurally to the left or right ear in an emotional tone and participants performed a temporal bisection task. In Experiment 1, angry and neutral stimuli ranged in duration from 260 to 440 ms (in steps of 20 ms) whereas in Experiments 2-4, durations ranged from 260 to 480 ms (in steps of 20 ms). In Experiment 3, the emotional tone of happiness replaced anger. In Experiment 4, anger and happiness were used as stimuli. In all experiments, results showed a larger bisection point for the right compared to the left ear. In addition, in all experiments, the constant error was farther away from zero for the right than for the left ear. The bisection point was also longer for the angry (Experiments 1 and 2) or happy (Experiment 3) than for the neutral emotional tone. Finally, happiness produced a shorter bisection point than anger in Experiment 4. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for time perception mechanisms and their potential cerebral representation.