Illuminating ATOM: Taking time across the colour category border.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive psychology
• Visual perception
• Cross-cultural studies

Background:

• A Theory Of Magnitude (ATOM) proposes a shared metric for representing magnitudes like number, space, time, and luminance.
• Prior research shows luminance differences affect duration perception, supporting ATOM.
• The influence of luminance on duration perception's limits, particularly with concurrent color changes, remains unexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if changes in color category disrupt the luminance-duration relationship.
• To test the robustness of luminance's influence on time perception.
• To examine cross-cultural differences in color categorization and their impact on perception.

Main Methods:

• Participants (native English and Greek speakers) viewed stimuli varying in luminance and color (green and blue).
• Color shifts were analyzed for categorical changes, especially for Greek speakers distinguishing light and dark blue.
• Duration judgments were recorded and analyzed in relation to luminance and color changes.

Main Results:

• A shift in green luminance did not affect duration judgments for either language group.
• For Greek speakers, shifts between light and dark blue (crossing a color category boundary) also did not interrupt duration judgments.
• Luminance-driven duration perception remained unaffected by discrete color category shifts.

Conclusions:

• The influence of luminance on duration perception is remarkably resistant to interference from concurrent, discrete changes in color.
• This finding supports the unified metric proposed by ATOM, showing its resilience across perceptual dimensions.
• Cross-cultural color categorization does not alter the fundamental luminance-duration perceptual link.