Dual mechanisms of temporal recalibration and Bayesian calibration in tactile simultaneity perception

To reconstruct the temporal structure of the external world, the brain is thought to adapt to sensory and sensorimotor delays. Repeated exposure to asynchronous stimulus pairs typically induces a compensatory shift in perceived timing, known as temporal recalibration. Although temporal recalibration has been reported across many modality pairings, tactile timing has been treated as an exception because prior studies have predominantly reported an opposite-direction shift toward the experienced lag (Bayesian calibration). Here we tested whether this apparent exception reflects modality-specific constraints or differences in experimental procedure. By systematically manipulating the experimental protocol, we show that a canonical paradigm dissociating adaptation and test reliably induces compensatory temporal recalibration in touch. By contrast, when observers make trial-by-trial judgments under biased distributions of stimulus onset asynchrony without a dissociated adaptation phase, perceived simultaneity shifts in the Bayesian-calibration direction. Across experiments, the two opposite-direction shifts were observed in temporal order judgments as well as simultaneity judgments. Together, these findings indicate that the direction of perceptual shifts in timing is not determined solely by sensory modality but is dynamically shaped by procedural factors. Whether timing adjustments manifest as temporal recalibration or Bayesian calibration depends primarily on how timing judgments are structured, rather than on the sensory modality per se. These findings suggest a modality-general framework for adaptive timing perception, comprising two distinct mechanisms: temporal recalibration and Bayesian calibration. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).