Validating virtual reality for time perception research: Virtual reality changes expectations about the duration of physical processes, but not the sense of time.

Immersive virtual reality (VR) provides a versatile method for investigating human time perception, because it allows the manipulation and control of relevant variables (e.g., the speed of environmental changes) that cannot be modified in the real world. However, an important premise for interpreting the results of VR studies, namely that the method itself does not affect time perception, has received little attention. Here we tested this assumption by comparing timing performance in a real environment and a VR scenario. Participants performed two timing tasks, requiring the production of intervals defined either by numerical values ("eight seconds") or by a physical process ("the time it takes for a bottle to run out when turned over"). We found that the experience of immersive VR exclusively altered judgments about the duration of physical processes, whereas judgments about the duration of abstract time units were unaffected. These results demonstrate that effects of VR on timing performance are not driven by changes in time perception itself, but rather by altered expectations regarding the duration of physical processes. The present study validates the use of VR in time perception research and strengthens the interpretation of changed timing behaviour induced by manipulations within VR.

Binding and retrieval of temporal action features: Probing the precision level of feature representations in action planning.

The duration of action can be critical to accomplishing specific goals. Empirical findings and theoretical considerations suggest that different stages of action planning and execution require different specification levels of action features. It is assumed that at first only crude categorical features are integrated into action plans, which are then specified by subsequent sensorimotor processes during action execution based on situational conditions. In two experiments, we investigated if the integration of action duration into action plans indeed relies exclusively on categorical duration representations or also on continuous-metric representations. Participants responded to visual prime and probe stimuli with short and long key presses. The duration of the prime response was indicated by a previous response cue, and the duration of the probe response was indicated by the shape of the probe stimulus. Analyses of response durations revealed that for response category repetitions from prime to probe, the actual durations of the repeated responses were more similar for shape repetitions than for shape switches. This indicates that continuous temporal information is integrated into an action plan and subsequently retrieved by stimulus repetition. Our results suggest that action duration is integrated into the action plan in a relatively precise form at an early stage of action planning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Binding time: Investigations on the integration of visual stimulus duration.

The perception of and reaction to objects creates bindings of (object) features and responses, also called event files. In this context, time is a so far understudied feature. We conducted four experiments to investigate whether the duration of visual stimuli is also integrated into such event files. Experiments 1, 2, and 4 used a simple colour classification task and in Experiment 3 the location of a stimulus had to be classified. In all Experiments, the presentation duration of the stimuli (coloured circles) was either short (20 ms) or long (300 ms). We expected partial repetition costs as an indicator of binding. That is, performance should be better when both colour (Experiment 3: location) and duration repeat or alternate relative to partial repetitions. Results showed no partial repetition costs in Experiments 1 and 3, indicating no integration of duration into visual event files. Experiments 2 and 4 revealed partial repetition costs. Performance was better when Colour and Duration repeated compared with a partial repetition. What distinguishes the latter two experiments from the former is that the coloured stimuli could change their presentation location. The results of all four experiments show a pattern that duration can be integrated into visual event files depending on two criteria: The experimental context holds the possibility of a location change of the target stimulus (Experiments 2 and 4) and the location itself is not response relevant (Experiment 3). The role of location changes for the integration of temporal stimulus features into visual event files is discussed.

Binding and Retrieval of Response Durations: Subtle Evidence for Episodic Processing of Continuous Movement Features.

Re-encountering a stimulus retrieves nominally relevant, categorical response features related to previous action decisions in response to this stimulus. Whether binding and retrieval extend to nominally irrelevant, metric features relating to an actual body movement is unknown, however. In two experiments, we thus tested whether repeating target or distractor stimuli across trials retrieves the irrelevant duration of spatial responses to these stimuli. We found subtle indication of such retrieval by task-relevant target stimuli, suggesting that binding and retrieval also operate on metric features of a motor response. In contrast, there was no sign of binding and retrieval of metric features for distractor stimuli. We discuss these observations regarding the representation of action episodes during action-related decision making and during actual movement initiation and control.

Challenging voices: Mixed evidence for context-specific control adjustments in the auditory domain.

The flexible adjustment to changing demands is an astonishing human ability. One related phenomenon is the context-specific proportion congruency (CSPC) effect. Regarding response conflict, the CSPC refers to reduced response interference in contexts with a high conflict proportion as opposed to contexts with a low conflict proportion. Derived from previous research showing CSPCs in the visual domain, we here aim to investigate whether human voices (male vs. female) as auditory contexts trigger control adjustments. To this end, we used a numerical judgement task with number words spoken by a male or female voice. We created response conflict by presenting the words either to the left or right ear (Experiment 1), and we created different levels of processing fluency by presenting them clearly or with background noise (Experiment 2). For a given participant, either the female or the male voice was associated with a high proportion of incongruent/disfluent trials and a low proportion of congruent/fluent trials, respectively. Extending previous findings from the visual modality, we found that the frequency of challenging information within one auditory context (i.e., the voice) can lead to typical CSPC patterns. In two further experiments, using frequency biased and unbiased items, we found evidence for the contribution of associative learning. Limitations of context control associations will be discussed.

RETRACTED: Auditory (dis-)fluency triggers sequential processing adjustments.

An increasing amount of studies indicates that experiencing increased task demands, triggered for example by conflicting stimulus features or low perceptual fluency, lead to processing adjustments. While these demand-triggered processing adjustments have been shown for different paradigms (e.g., response conflict tasks, perceptual disfluency, task switching, dual tasking), most of them are restricted to the visual modality. The present study investigated as to whether the challenge to understand speech signals in normal-hearing subjects would also lead to sequential processing adjustments if the processing fluency of the respective auditory signals changes from trial to trial. To that end, we used spoken number words (one to nine) that were either presented with high (clean speech) or low perceptual fluency (i.e., vocoded speech as used in cochlear implants-Experiment 1; speech embedded in multi-speaker babble noise as typically found in bars-Experiment 2). Participants had to judge the spoken number words as smaller or larger than five. Results show that the fluency effect (performance difference between high and low perceptual fluency) in both experiments was smaller following disfluent words. Thus, if it's hard to understand, you try harder.

Timing affect: Dimension-specific time-based expectancy for affect.

Affective information in our environment is often predictable by time; for example, positive answers are typically given faster than negative ones. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, that humans can implicitly adapt to time-based affect predictability. Participants were asked to categorize words, with the words' irrelevant valences being predictable by the timing of their occurrence. Adaptation to this pattern became evident by better performance for typical combinations of time and valence, relative to atypical combinations (Experiment 2). A comparable adaptation was observed for predictable activation (another affective dimension, Experiment 4), but not for predictable imageability (a nonaffective dimension, Experiment 3). In none of the experiments did participants become aware of the time-based predictability. These findings have significant implications for our theoretical understanding of human time-based expectancy, as well as important implications for the scheduling of system delays in artificial interaction and communication environments. (PsycINFO Database Record

Binding time: Evidence for integration of temporal stimulus features.

Several lines of evidence suggest that during processing of events, the features of these events become connected via episodic bindings. Such bindings have been demonstrated for a large number of visual and auditory stimulus features, like color and orientation, or pitch and loudness. Importantly, most visual and auditory events typically also involve temporal features, like onset time or duration. So far, however, whether temporal stimulus features are also bound into event representations has never been tested directly. The aim of the present study was to investigate possible binding between stimulus duration and other features of auditory events. In Experiment 1, participants had to respond with two keys to a low or high pitch sinus tone. Critically, the tones were presented with two different presentation durations. Sequential analysis of RT data indicated binding of stimulus duration into the event representation: at pitch repetitions, performance was better when both pitch and duration repeated, relative to when only pitch repeated and duration switched. This finding was replicated with loudness as relevant stimulus feature in Experiment 2. In sum, the results demonstrate that temporal features are bound into auditory event representations. This finding is an important advancement for binding theory in general, and raises several new questions for future research.

Shielding voices: The modulation of binding processes between voice features and response features by task representations.

Vocal events offer not only semantic-linguistic content but also information about the identity and the emotional-motivational state of the speaker. Furthermore, most vocal events have implications for our actions and therefore include action-related features. But the relevance and irrelevance of vocal features varies from task to task. The present study investigates binding processes for perceptual and action-related features of spoken words and their modulation by the task representation of the listener. Participants reacted with two response keys to eight different words spoken by a male or a female voice (Experiment 1) or spoken by an angry or neutral male voice (Experiment 2). There were two instruction conditions: half of participants learned eight stimulus-response mappings by rote (SR), and half of participants applied a binary task rule (TR). In both experiments, SR instructed participants showed clear evidence for binding processes between voice and response features indicated by an interaction between the irrelevant voice feature and the response. By contrast, as indicated by a three-way interaction with instruction, no such binding was found in the TR instructed group. These results are suggestive of binding and shielding as two adaptive mechanisms that ensure successful communication and action in a dynamic social environment.

TVA-based assessment of visual attentional functions in developmental dyslexia.

There is an ongoing debate whether an impairment of visual attentional functions constitutes an additional or even an isolated deficit of developmental dyslexia (DD). Especially performance in tasks that require the processing of multiple visual elements in parallel has been reported to be impaired in DD. We review studies that used parameter-based assessment for identifying and quantifying impaired aspect(s) of visual attention that underlie this multi-element processing deficit in DD. These studies used the mathematical framework provided by the "theory of visual attention" (Bundesen, 1990) to derive quantitative measures of general attentional resources and attentional weighting aspects on the basis of behavioral performance in whole- and partial-report tasks. Based on parameter estimates in children and adults with DD, the reviewed studies support a slowed perceptual processing speed as an underlying primary deficit in DD. Moreover, a reduction in visual short term memory storage capacity seems to present a modulating component, contributing to difficulties in written language processing. Furthermore, comparing the spatial distributions of attentional weights in children and adults suggests that having limited reading and writing skills might impair the development of a slight leftward bias, that is typical for unimpaired adult readers.

Parameter-based assessment of disturbed and intact components of visual attention in children with developmental dyslexia.

People with developmental dyslexia (DD) have been shown to be impaired in tasks that require the processing of multiple visual elements in parallel. It has been suggested that this deficit originates from disturbed visual attentional functions. The parameter-based assessment of visual attention based on Bundesen's () theory of visual attention allows one to identify and quantify the underlying deficits. The present study provides the first groupwise comparison between children with DD (n = 12; mean age 9.84 years) and typically developing children (n = 12; mean age 9.87 years) with regard to intact and disturbed components of visual attention. From the performance on whole- and partial-report tasks, we derived individual parameter estimates of four different parameters: visual processing speed, storage capacity of visual short-term memory (VSTM), laterality of attentional weighting and efficiency of top-down control. Groupwise comparisons revealed that general attentional resources, processing speed and VSTM storage capacity, are impaired in children with DD compared to typically developing children. In contrast, selectivity parameters, laterality of attentional selection and attentional top-down control did not differ between these groups. Relating the current findings to previous results, obtained in highly comparable methodological settings, from single cases of children with DD, and from a group of adults with DD, we conclude that slowed perceptual processing speed is a primary visual attentional deficit in DD. Furthermore, reduced VSTM storage capacity seems to modulate the difficulties in written language processing imposed by the disorder.