Distortions to Passage of Time Judgements (POTJ) due to virtual threat are predicted by autonomic activation

Humans' sense of the passage of time is subjective and determined by psychophysiological responses to the environment. The passing of time has been perceived to significantly slow in stressful situations, such as accidents or virtual threats. The current study will explore distortions in the perception of passage of time when threat is simulated using virtual reality (VR). 44 participants negotiated a large (13.6 × 8.4 m) virtual environment designed to maximise the realism of a physical threat by exposing participants to a virtual height of 200m. Subjective perception of passage of time and time estimation were used as independent variables, whereas the movement of participants, and ambulatory psychophysiology, e.g., electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate, served as dependent variables. The independent variables were examined in relation to the dependent variables through a regression analysis, which allowed for the identification of the specific weight of each variable. Our analyses revealed that passage of time was perceived to decrease (i.e., time slowed down) for those participants who exhibited the higher levels of skin conductance (SCL). It is argued that this finding can be explained by individual differences in self-regulatory strategies during the task and the effectiveness of VR as means to simulate threat.