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Updated: Sep 15, 2025
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Author Spotlight: Exploring the Link Between Time Perception of Visual Stimuli and Reading Skills
Published on: January 19, 2024
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Stimuli are perceived as lasting longer when there is something bright on the screen
Hakan Karsilar1, Sebastiaan Mathôt2, Hedderik van Rijn2
1Department of Psychology, University of Groningen, Grote Kruisstraat 2/1, 9712TS, Groningen, The Netherlands. h.karsilar@rug.nl.
Attention, Perception & Psychophysics
|July 13, 2025
Summary
Perceived time duration is extended by increased brightness, affecting both the stimulus and its background. Contrary to expectations, pupil size did not influence time perception, suggesting brightness is a key visual factor.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Visual perception
- Psychophysics
Background:
- Perceived time often differs from physical time, impacting cognitive processes.
- Understanding factors influencing time perception is crucial for cognitive science.
- Previous research explored various attributes affecting duration perception, but the role of brightness was less clear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how stimulus and background brightness influence perceived time duration.
- To examine the relationship between pupil size, arousal, and perceived time.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted to measure perceived duration.
- Participants' time perception was assessed under varying stimulus and background brightness conditions.
- Spontaneous pupil size fluctuations were recorded and correlated with perceived duration.
Main Results:
- Increased brightness of both the stimulus and background led to a lengthening of perceived duration.
- Stimulus brightness replicated previous findings, while background brightness effects were novel.
- No significant relationship was found between pupil size and perceived time duration.
Conclusions:
- Low-level visual input, specifically brightness, significantly influences time perception.
- Background brightness can bias time perception, suggesting a link between visual processing and temporal judgments.
- Pupil size, often linked to arousal, does not appear to modulate perceived duration in this context.
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