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The Power of Interstimulus Interval for the Assessment of Temporal Processing in Rodents

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The Blur of Pleasure: Appetitively Appealing Stimuli Decrease Subjective Temporal Perceptual Acuity.

Kevin H Roberts¹, Grace Truong¹, Alan Kingstone¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia.

Psychological Science

|September 21, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Motivational relevance alters subjective perception of time. Positive stimuli appear smoother, while negative stimuli seem choppier, affecting temporal acuity and visual processing speed.

Keywords:

emotions motivation time perception visual perception

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Area of Science:

Cognitive psychology
Neuroscience
Perception

Background:

Motivational relevance of stimuli affects duration judgments.
Subjective experience of unfolding events and its alteration by motivational relevance is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if motivational relevance alters the subjective quality of moment-to-moment visual perception.
To examine the influence of stimulus value on temporal perceptual acuity.

Main Methods:

Participants judged the temporal smoothness of positive, negative, and neutral images fading to black.
Approach motivation ratings were collected and correlated with perceived smoothness.
Electrophysiological data were recorded to assess perceptual activation.

Main Results:

Positive stimuli were perceived as smoother, and negative stimuli as choppier, compared to neutral stimuli (approach-motivated blurring).
Perceived fade smoothness was predicted by approach motivation ratings, independent of low-level stimulus features.
Approach-motivated blurring modulated rapid perceptual activation.

Conclusions:

Stimulus value significantly influences subjective temporal perceptual acuity.
Approach-motivating stimuli lead to a perception of a "blurred" frame rate, akin to speeded motion.
This suggests motivational relevance shapes the very fabric of our subjective temporal experience.