The effect of magnitude in a simultaneous duration assessment task among children - a replication study.

The "magnitude effect" refers to the phenomenon where stimuli of greater magnitude appear to last longer in duration. Previous studies have explored this effect among children using various duration assessment tasks, but the findings have been inconsistent. Moreover, no replication studies have been conducted on this topic among children thus far. The simultaneous duration assessment task, which is one method for investigating time perception, has been used only twice in children and produced the magnitude effect. Thus, we aimed to replicate these findings and validate them through an additional replicated study. For these aims, we recruited 45 Arab-speaking children aged 7-12 to participate in two studies. In Study 1, they were asked to perform a simultaneous duration assessment task, where they had to assess the illumination durations of lightbulbs with strong and weak intensities simultaneously. In Study 2, they were asked to perform a duration reproduction task, where they had to reproduce the durations of illumination of the same stimuli. Both studies found a magnitude effect pattern, where the children tended to report that the lightbulb with the stronger intensity was illuminated for a longer duration or had a strong tendency to not choose the lightbulb with the weaker intensity. These results are discussed in terms of possible explanations for the conflicting results found in previous literature, as well as their consistency with the pacemaker model's explanation for the effect.

Effect of the Symbolic Meaning of Speed on the Perceived Duration of Children and Adults.

The present study investigated how the symbolic meaning of speed affects time perception in children and adults. We employed a time reproduction task in which participants were asked to reproduce temporal intervals previously presented. In Experiment 1, 45 primary school children and 22 university students performed a time reproduction task with cars (meaning of fastness) and trucks (meaning of slowness) presented for 11 and 21 s in static and moving conditions. Results showed that young children under-reproduced the duration more than the older children and adults, especially when the stimulus presented was a car. Moreover, participants under-reproduced moving stimuli compared to static one. In Experiment 2, we tested 289 participants who were divided into nine different age groups according to their school class: five from primary school, three from Junior High, and one from the university. Participants performed a time reproduction task with a motorbike (meaning of fastness) or a bicycle (meaning of slowness) under static and moving conditions for 11, 21, and 36 s. The results confirmed the effects of symbolic meaning of speed on children's time perception and showed that vehicles that evoked the idea of fastness were under-reproduced compared to stimuli evoking the idea of slowness.

Physical load affects duration judgments: A meta-analytic review.

This article reports a meta-analytic review of seven extant experiments, with 235 participants, concerning effects of physical workload on duration judgments. It also provides a qualitative assessment of related studies that, for specific reasons, were not includable in the quantitative meta-analysis. All analyzed experiments used the prospective duration-judgment paradigm and the production method, in which participants knew in advance that duration estimation was required. A large overall effect size reveals that increasing physical workload results in longer prospective duration productions. Physical workload effects are comparable to those of cognitive load. Implications for applied research, theory, and applications are discussed.

The temporal-relevance temporal-uncertainty model of prospective duration judgment.

A model aimed at explaining prospective duration judgments in real life settings (as well as in the laboratory) is presented. The model is based on the assumption that situational meaning is continuously being extracted by humans' perceptual and cognitive information processing systems. Time is one of the important dimensions of situational meaning. Based on the situational meaning, a value for Temporal Relevance is set. Temporal Relevance reflects the importance of temporal aspects for enabling adaptive behavior in a specific moment in time. When Temporal Relevance is above a certain threshold a prospective duration judgment process is evoked automatically. In addition, a search for relevant temporal information is taking place and its outcomes determine the level of Temporal Uncertainty which reflects the degree of knowledge one has regarding temporal aspects of the task to be performed. The levels of Temporal Relevance and Temporal Uncertainty determine the amount of attentional resources allocated for timing by the executive system. The merit of the model is in connecting timing processes with the ongoing general information processing stream. The model rests on findings in various domains which indicate that cognitive-relevance and self-relevance are powerful determinants of resource allocation policy. The feasibility of the model is demonstrated by analyzing various temporal phenomena. Suggestions for further empirical validation of the model are presented.

The duality of temporal encoding - the intrinsic and extrinsic representation of time.

While time is well acknowledged for having a fundamental part in our perception, questions on how it is represented are still matters of great debate. One of the main issues in question is whether time is represented intrinsically at the neural level, or is it represented within dedicated brain regions. We used an fMRI block design to test if we can impose covert encoding of temporal features of faces and natural scenes stimuli within category selective neural populations by exposing subjects to four types of temporal variance, ranging from 0% up to 50% variance. We found a gradual increase in neural activation associated with the gradual increase in temporal variance within category selective areas. A second level analysis showed the same pattern of activations within known brain regions associated with time representation, such as the Cerebellum, the Caudate, and the Thalamus. We concluded that temporal features are integral to perception and are simultaneously represented within category selective regions and globally within dedicated regions. Our second conclusion, drown from our covert procedure, is that time encoding, at its basic level, is an automated process that does not require attention allocated toward the temporal features nor does it require dedicated resources.

Determinants of judgment and decision making quality: the interplay between information processing style and situational factors.

A framework is presented to better characterize the role of individual differences in information processing style and their interplay with contextual factors in determining decision making quality. In Experiment 1, we show that individual differences in information processing style are flexible and can be modified by situational factors. Specifically, a situational manipulation that induced an analytical mode of thought improved decision quality. In Experiment 2, we show that this improvement in decision quality is highly contingent on the compatibility between the dominant thinking mode and the nature of the task. That is, encouraging an intuitive mode of thought led to better performance on an intuitive task but hampered performance on an analytical task. The reverse pattern was obtained when an analytical mode of thought was encouraged. We discuss the implications of these results for the assessment of decision making competence, and suggest practical directions to help individuals better adjust their information processing style to the situation at hand and make optimal decisions.

Foreperiod and range effects on time interval categorization.

One factor influencing the perceived duration of a brief interval is the length of the period preceding it, namely the foreperiod (FP). When multiple FPs are varied randomly within a testing session, longer FPs result in longer perceived duration. The purpose of this study was to identify what characteristics modulate this effect. In a task where participants were asked to categorize the duration of target intervals with respect to a 100-ms standard, the FPs were distributed over a 150-, 300-, or 900-ms range with the midpoint (1000 ms) of these distributions being kept constant. The results indicate that the effect of the length of variable FPs on perceived duration was much stronger in the 900-ms range condition. More specifically, this effect is due to the differences between the shortest FPs. The results also reveal that, overall, there are more short responses in the 300-ms condition than in the other range conditions. Moreover, the data reveal that the narrower the distribution, the better the discrimination. One interpretation of the main result (range effect) is that a wider distribution leads to an increased prior uncertainty towards the foreperiod length.

Faster is briefer: The symbolic meaning of speed influences time perception.

The present study investigates how the symbolic meaning of the stimuli presented for marking time intervals affects perceived duration. Participants were engaged in a time bisection task in which they were first trained with two standard durations, 400 ms and 1600 ms, and then asked to judge if the following temporal intervals were closer to the short or to the long standard. Stimuli were images of vehicles representing speed, with a motorbike representing fastness and a bicycle representing slowness. Results showed that presenting images with different speed meanings affects time perception: an image representing a fast object, the motorbike, leads to shorter perceived time than presenting an image representing a slower object, the bicycle. This finding is attributed to an impact on the memory mechanism involved in the processing of temporal information.

Psychological time as information: the case of boredom.

The flow of time is experienced by humans although the exact nature of time is not well understood. The importance of time in humans' life is not in dispute and is reflected by several dimensions like duration, which is best representing the naïve meaning of time. Psychological time serves several important functions which are essential for being able to act and survive in a dynamic environment. In the present paper we argue that psychological time in the form of sensing the pace of the flow of time provides important information to the executive system which control and monitor behavior. When information processing load is below an optimal level for a specific Individual a feeling of boredom is raised. Boredom is accompanied by a slowing of the felt pace of the flow of time. Boredom is a unique mental state which is linked with decreasing efficiency in cognitive and perceptual performance and is correlated with low job satisfaction and general well-being. As such, boredom poses a threat to normal functioning. We suggest that the felt slowing in the flow of time is a signal which, similarly to pain, is aimed at alerting the executive system that resources should be recruited in order to cope with the hazardous state.

Can the "musical stroop" task replace the classical stroop task? Commentary on "The musical Stroop effect: Opening a new avenue to research on automatisms" by l. Grégoire, P. Perruchet, and B. Poulin-Charronnat (Experimental Psychology, 2013, vol. 60, pp. 269­278).

The musical Stroop task is analyzed and compared to the classical Stroop task. The analysis indicates that the two tasks differ in the following significant characteristics: ecological validity, the interrelations between the two perceptual dimensions involved, the nature of the automatic process and the existence of a potential Garner interference. It is concluded that the musical task has no advantage over the classical task.

Garner interference and temporal information processing.

The aim of the study was to explore whether temporal information processing can interfere with performance of a non-temporal task. A new methodology based on the Garner paradigm was employed. Participants were asked to classify two-dimensional stimuli according to either length or duration, with and without variation in the other (task-irrelevant) dimension. Garner interference was detected only with respect to classification by length when irrelevant variation in duration was present. Stroop interference was detected only in classification by length across compatible and non-compatible values of length and duration. Classification by length took more time when done with variation in duration than when duration was constant. Classification by length also took more time when length and duration were not compatible than when they were compatible. The findings indicate that the processing of duration is similar to the processing of other perceptual dimensions. The processing of duration consumes attentional resources and can interfere with the processing of other perceptual dimensions. The findings support attentional models of prospective duration judgment.

Pitting intuitive and analytical thinking against each other: the case of transitivity.

Identifying which thinking mode, intuitive or analytical, yields better decisions has been a major subject of inquiry by decision-making researchers. Yet studies show contradictory results. One possibility is that the ambiguity is due to the variability in experimental conditions across studies. Our hypothesis is that decision quality depends critically on the level of compatibility between the thinking mode employed in the decision and the nature of the decision-making task. In two experiments, we pitted intuition and analytical thinking against each other on tasks that were either mainly intuitive or mainly analytical. Thinking modes, as well as task characteristics, were manipulated in a factorial design, with choice transitivity as the dependent measure. Results showed higher choice consistency (transitivity) when thinking mode and the characteristics of the decision task were compatible.

The Impact of the Mode of Thought in Complex Decisions: Intuitive Decisions are Better.

A number of recent studies have reported that decision quality is enhanced under conditions of inattention or distraction (unconscious thought; Dijksterhuis, 2004; Dijksterhuis and Nordgren, 2006; Dijksterhuis et al., 2006). These reports have generated considerable controversy, for both experimental (problems of replication) and theoretical reasons (interpretation). Here we report the results of four experiments. The first experiment replicates the unconscious thought effect, under conditions that validate and control the subjective criterion of decision quality. The second and third experiments examine the impact of a mode of thought manipulation (without distraction) on decision quality in immediate decisions. Here we find that intuitive or affective manipulations improve decision quality compared to analytic/deliberation manipulations. The fourth experiment combines the two methods (distraction and mode of thought manipulations) and demonstrates enhanced decision quality, in a situation that attempts to preserve ecological validity. The results are interpreted within a framework that is based on two interacting subsystems of decision-making: an affective/intuition based system and an analytic/deliberation system.

How cognitive load affects duration judgments: A meta-analytic review.

A meta-analysis of 117 experiments evaluated the effects of cognitive load on duration judgments. Cognitive load refers to information-processing (attentional or working-memory) demands. Six types of cognitive load were analyzed to resolve ongoing controversies and to test current duration judgment theories. Duration judgments depend on whether or not participants are informed in advance that they are needed: prospective paradigm (informed) versus retrospective paradigm (not informed). With higher cognitive load, the prospective duration judgment ratio (subjective duration to objective duration) decreases but the retrospective ratio increases. Thus, the duration judgment ratio differs depending on the paradigm and the specific type of cognitive load. As assessed by the coefficient of variation, relative variability of prospective, but not retrospective, judgments increases with cognitive load. The prospective findings support models emphasizing attentional resources, especially executive control. The retrospective findings support models emphasizing memory changes. Alternative theories do not fit with the meta-analytic findings and are rejected.

The perceived diversity heuristic: the case of pseudodiversity.

One of the normative ways to decrease the risk of a pool with uncertainty prospects is to diversify its resources. Thus, decision makers are advised not to put all their eggs in one basket. The authors suggest that decision makers use a perceived diversity heuristic (PDH) to evaluate the risk of a pool by intuitively assessing the diversity of its sources. This heuristic yields biased judgments in cases of pseudodiversity, in which the perceived diversity of a pool is enhanced, although this fact does not change the pool's normative values. The first 3 studies introduce 2 independent sources of pseudodiversity-distinctiveness and multiplicity-showing that these two sources can lead to overdiversification under conditions of gain. In another set of 3 studies, the authors examine the effect of framing on diversification level. The results support the PDH predictions, according to which diversity seeking is obtained under conditions of gain, whereas diversity aversion is obtained under conditions of loss.

The lengthening effect revisited: a reply to Prinzmetal and Wilson (1997) and Masin (1999).

In the present study, the lengthening phenomenon (Tsal & Shalev, 1996), namely, the increase in perceived length of unattended lines, was reexamined in light of criticisms by Prinzmetal and Wilson (1997) and Masin (1999). Prinzmetal and Wilson suggested that the effect was not due to attentional factors but to the spatial interaction between the attended line and the cue used to direct attention. We have replicated the lengthening effect when both attended and unattended lines are preceded by cues at a nearby location, showing that the effect is not caused by spatial cues per se, but instead reflects an inherent property of the attentional system. Masin argued that the lengthening effect is not robust, because it occurs for some but not for all participants. In the present study, the lengthening effect was highly reliable, occurring for each participant for a variety of line lengths.

Prospective and retrospective duration judgments: an executive-control perspective.

Most theorists propose that when a person is aware that a duration judgment must be made (prospective paradigm), experienced duration depends on attention to temporal information, which competes with attention to nontemporal information. When a person is not aware that a duration judgment must be made until later (retrospective paradigm), remembered duration depends on incidental memory for temporal information. In the present article we describe two experiments in which durations involved with high-level, executive-control functions were judged either prospectively or retrospectively. In one experiment, the executive function involved resolving syntactic ambiguity in reading. In another experiment, it involved controlling the switching between tasks. In both experiments, there was a unique cost to the operation of control high-level, executive functions which was manifested by prospective reproductions shortening a finding that supports an attentional model of prospective timing. In addition, activation of executive functions produced contextual changes that were encoded in memory and resulted in longer retrospective reproductions, a finding that supports a contextual-change model of retrospective timing. Thus, different cognitive processes underlie prospective and retrospective timing. Recent findings obtained by some brain researchers also support these conclusions.

Outcome value and early warning indications as determinants of willingness to learn from experience.

In this study of willingness to learn from experience, it was hypothesized that managers would show a negative outcomes bias, that is, a stronger tendency to initiate "learning-from-experience" processes after negative outcomes than after positive outcomes. Another aim of the study was to explore the impact of the existence of early warning signals about decision outcomes on the magnitude of the negative outcome bias. Eighty-three managers were asked to read vignettes describing a managerial decision and its outcomes. The outcomes were either positive or negative, and in half of the cases early warning signals existed that made it possible to predict potential negative outcomes while in the other half there were no such signals. The managers were asked to evaluate the need for a learning-from-experience process in general and to rate the degree to which several specific learning processes should be instituted in each of the scenarios. As hypothesized, a negative-outcome bias was found. The more negative the outcomes described, the stronger the managers' inclination to recommend a more intensive learning process. Similarly, a need to ensure control and follow-up procedures was reported mostly after negative outcomes. The existence of early warning signals before the decision was taken did not influence the motivation to learn. Theoretical implications regarding the impact of negative outcomes in general and implications for understanding learning from experience processes in particular are discussed.