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Altered temporal awareness during Covid-19 pandemic
Şerife Leman Runyun1,2, Virginie van Wassenhove3, Fuat Balci4,5
1Department of Psychology, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Psychological Research
|July 21, 2024
Summary
Social isolation during COVID-19 lockdowns impaired temporal metacognition, reducing the ability to monitor timing errors. This cognitive effect was linked to increased social isolation and altered biological rhythms.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Public Health
Background:
- Social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted human well-being.
- Previous research explored altered time perception, but the effects on temporal metacognition remained uninvestigated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of long-term social isolation during COVID-19 lockdowns on temporal error monitoring.
- To assess if social isolation affects the ability to self-monitor timing performance accuracy.
Main Methods:
- Recruited 1232 participants during lockdown across 12 countries, with a subset retested post-pandemic.
- Compared lockdown participants with a separate post-pandemic group, analyzing time production accuracy and error monitoring.
- Controlled for government stringency indices and self-reported social isolation levels.
Main Results:
- Reduced temporal error monitoring performance was observed during lockdown compared to post-lockdown, in both within-group and between-group analyses.
- Higher levels of reported social isolation correlated with poorer temporal error monitoring.
- Participants produced longer durations during lockdown than post-lockdown, even after controlling for stringency.
Conclusions:
- Long-term social isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected temporal metacognition and error monitoring.
- Altered biological and behavioral rhythms may underlie these observed cognitive changes.
- Findings highlight crucial cognitive consequences of prolonged social isolation.
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