Perceived time: its relationship with locus of control, filled versus unfilled time intervals, and perceiver's sex

The present study examined the role of locus of control and the perceiver 's sex in the estimation of filled and unfilled time intervals. One hundred male and 100 female undergraduates, ranging in age between 16 and 21 years, were administered Collins' I-E Scale followed by a time-estimation task. The latter involved judging 10 time intervals which were either "filled" with a tapping sound presented by the E, or were "unfilled." Results indicate that (a) high internals, compared to low internals, were less likely to overestimate filled intervals, but were more likely to overestimate unfilled intervals, possibly because high internals are more time-conscious; (b) the extent of absolute error in estimation is jointly affected by internality, filled/unfilled intervals, and the perceiver 's sex, but the last-mentioned variable had the most prominent independent effect. In general, males made less error in time estimation than females. It is suggested that the observed sex differences in the present study was probably due to socially learned differences in time consciousness.