Spatial selectivity of the visual duration aftereffect in the sub-second range: An event-related potentials study.

Prolonged adaptation to one duration biases the perception of subsequent durations in a phenomenon known as duration adaptation. There is controversy regarding the neural substrates of the visual duration aftereffect: some researchers have argued that duration adaptation occurs in early visual cortical areas, whereas others have argued for high-level visual areas. Investigation of spatial selectivity of the duration aftereffect could help reveal the neural mechanisms underlying duration adaptation. In the present study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to demonstrate spatial selectivity of the visual duration aftereffect in the sub-second range. We measured the duration aftereffect at a 20° adapt-test distance that spanned 10° on either side of fixation. Our results revealed that duration adaptation first affected the N1 ERP component and then influenced the contingent negative variation (CNV) component. Moreover, the CNV component showed position effects in the temporal encoding stage, and the post-stimulus positive component was subject to a duration effect but not a position effect. These findings indicate that sub-second duration coding is closely linked to the early processing of the visual cortex. Moreover, the adaptation not only affects the earlier temporal coding stage, but also the later temporal processing stage.

A unifying Bayesian framework accounting for spatiotemporal interferences with a deceleration tendency.

Spatial and temporal levels of information processing interfere with each other. The Kappa effect is a well-known spatiotemporal interference in which the estimated time between two lights increases as the distance between them increases, showing a deceleration tendency. A classical model attributes this interference to constant speeds and predicts a linear relation, whereas a slowness model attributes the interference to slow speeds and proposes that the tendency is due to the uncertainty of stimuli locations. This study integrated a unifying Bayesian framework with the classical model and argued that this tendency is the result of the Weber-Fechner law. This hypothesis was tested via two time discrimination tasks that manipulated the uncertainty of stimuli locations and the distance between stimuli. Experiment 1 showed that the estimated time was not modulated by the uncertainty of the stimuli locations. Experiment 2 revealed that the behavioral predictions made by the Bayesian model on logarithmic scales were more accurate than those made by the linear model. Our results suggest that the deceleration tendency in the Kappa effect is the result of the Weber-Fechner law.

A Systematic Review Approach to Find Robust Items of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory.

The Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) is one of the most well-known and widely used measures of time perspective. Various short versions were proposed to resolve the psychometric problems of the ZTPI. The present study conducted a systematic review to obtain 25 short versions, calculated the frequency of each item of the ZTPI in short versions, and hypothesized that the more frequent the item is, the more robust it becomes. The hypothesis was tested by assessing the structural validity and internal consistency of short forms with high, medium, and low frequent items in Chinese samples (575 children, 407 undergraduates, and 411 older adults). Structural validity and internal consistency analyses showed that the form with more frequent items had better psychometric properties; item frequencies were positively correlated with factor loadings. The results suggest that the systematic review is an effective approach to identify the robust items of the ZTPI. This approach is general and can be the basis to improve the psychometric properties of scales in social science.