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How does it feel? Passage of time judgments in speeded RT performance
1Department of Psychology, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany. bratzke@uni-bremen.de.
Psychological Research
|July 4, 2023
Summary
Understanding time perception is complex. This study found that judgments of time passage and reaction times (RT) mirror each other in millisecond duration perception tasks, especially during introspection.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Psychophysics
- Neuroscience
Background:
- The relationship between duration perception and the subjective feeling of time passing remains unclear.
- Previous research has explored introspective reaction times (RT) but not fully linked them to passage of time judgments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how introspective reaction times (RT) relate to passage of time judgments.
- To determine if task difficulty influences both RT and the perception of time passing.
Main Methods:
- Participants completed a speeded numerical comparison task with varying difficulty (numerical distance and notation).
- Introspective reaction times (RT) and passage of time judgments were recorded during the task.
Main Results:
- Task difficulty, manipulated by numerical distance and notation, affected introspective RTs, consistent with prior findings.
- Passage of time judgments mirrored RT patterns, showing slower time passage with increased task difficulty.
- Both duration judgments and passage of time perception showed similar patterns in the millisecond range.
Conclusions:
- In the millisecond range, introspective judgments of duration and the passage of time appear to be closely linked.
- These findings suggest that cognitive load and task difficulty significantly impact subjective time perception.
