On the interplay between time and space perception in discontinuous stimulus displays

The present study examined whether and how the mutual perceptual biases of temporal and spatial information, known as the kappa and the tau effects, depend on the duration and spatial extent of sensory stimulation as well as on the magnitude of spatio-temporal discrepancy. Three small circles were presented in succession at different spatial positions. The time points of presentation and the spatial position of the second circle systematically varied. Participants judged either whether the temporal interval between the first and the second circle was longer than the interval between the second and the third circle (Experiment 1) or whether the spatial distance between the first and the second circle was larger than the distance between the second and the third circle (Experiment 2), or both in separate blocks of trials (Experiment 3). The impact of spatial information on temporal perception (i.e., the kappa effect) increased with velocity of motion presumably imputed by the participants to the static displays and decreased with spatio-temporal discrepancy. No inverse biases (i.e., no tau effects) were observed. These results are considered as an indication that integration of spatial and temporal signals follow the same basic principles as multisensory integration of redundant signals, such as those from vision and touch.