Perceived Duration: The Interplay of Top-Down Attention and Task-Relevant Information
Perception of time is susceptible to distortions; among other factors, it has been suggested that the perceived duration of a stimulus is affected by the observer’s expectations. It has been hypothesized that the duration of an oddball stimulus is overestimated because it is unexpected, whereas repe...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2019-03-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00490/full |
| _version_ | 1819209284195450880 |
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| author | Alejandra Ciria Florente López Bruno Lara |
| author_facet | Alejandra Ciria Florente López Bruno Lara |
| author_sort | Alejandra Ciria |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Perception of time is susceptible to distortions; among other factors, it has been suggested that the perceived duration of a stimulus is affected by the observer’s expectations. It has been hypothesized that the duration of an oddball stimulus is overestimated because it is unexpected, whereas repeated stimuli have a shorter perceived duration because they are expected. However, recent findings suggest instead that fulfilled expectations about a stimulus elicit an increase in perceived duration, and that the oddball effect occurs because the oddball is a target stimulus, not because it is unexpected. Therefore, it has been suggested that top-down attention is sometimes sufficient to explain this effect, and sometimes only necessary, with an additional contribution from saliency. However, how the expectedness of a target stimulus and its salient features affect its perceived duration is still an open question. In the present study, participants’ expectations about and the saliency of target stimuli were orthogonally manipulated with stimuli presented on a short (Experiment 1) or long (Experiment 2) temporal scale. Four repetitive standard stimuli preceded each target stimulus in a task in which participants judged whether the target was longer or shorter in duration than the standards. Engagement of top-down attention to target stimuli increased their perceived duration to the same extent irrespective of their expectedness. A small but significant additional contribution to this effect from the saliency of target stimuli was dependent on the temporal scale of stimulus presentation. In Experiment 1, saliency only significantly increased perceived duration in the case of expected target stimuli. In contrast, in Experiment 2, saliency exerted a significant effect on the overestimation elicited by unexpected target stimuli, but the contribution of this variable was eliminated in the case of expected target stimuli. These findings point to top-down attention as the primary cognitive mechanism underlying the perceptual extraction and processing of task-relevant information, which may be strongly correlated with perceived duration. Furthermore, the scalar properties of timing were observed, favoring the pacemaker-accumulator model of timing as the underlying timing mechanism. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T05:52:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-29de394dc9764b0aaa72daebbcedd71a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T05:52:50Z |
| publishDate | 2019-03-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-29de394dc9764b0aaa72daebbcedd71a2022-12-21T17:57:54ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782019-03-011010.3389/fpsyg.2019.00490420595Perceived Duration: The Interplay of Top-Down Attention and Task-Relevant InformationAlejandra Ciria0Florente López1Bruno Lara2Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, MexicoFacultad de Psicología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, MexicoLaboratorio de Robótica Cognitiva, Centro de Investigación en Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos, Cuernavaca, MexicoPerception of time is susceptible to distortions; among other factors, it has been suggested that the perceived duration of a stimulus is affected by the observer’s expectations. It has been hypothesized that the duration of an oddball stimulus is overestimated because it is unexpected, whereas repeated stimuli have a shorter perceived duration because they are expected. However, recent findings suggest instead that fulfilled expectations about a stimulus elicit an increase in perceived duration, and that the oddball effect occurs because the oddball is a target stimulus, not because it is unexpected. Therefore, it has been suggested that top-down attention is sometimes sufficient to explain this effect, and sometimes only necessary, with an additional contribution from saliency. However, how the expectedness of a target stimulus and its salient features affect its perceived duration is still an open question. In the present study, participants’ expectations about and the saliency of target stimuli were orthogonally manipulated with stimuli presented on a short (Experiment 1) or long (Experiment 2) temporal scale. Four repetitive standard stimuli preceded each target stimulus in a task in which participants judged whether the target was longer or shorter in duration than the standards. Engagement of top-down attention to target stimuli increased their perceived duration to the same extent irrespective of their expectedness. A small but significant additional contribution to this effect from the saliency of target stimuli was dependent on the temporal scale of stimulus presentation. In Experiment 1, saliency only significantly increased perceived duration in the case of expected target stimuli. In contrast, in Experiment 2, saliency exerted a significant effect on the overestimation elicited by unexpected target stimuli, but the contribution of this variable was eliminated in the case of expected target stimuli. These findings point to top-down attention as the primary cognitive mechanism underlying the perceptual extraction and processing of task-relevant information, which may be strongly correlated with perceived duration. Furthermore, the scalar properties of timing were observed, favoring the pacemaker-accumulator model of timing as the underlying timing mechanism.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00490/fullperceived durationoddball effecttop-down attentiontask-relevant informationstimulus expectationssaliency |
| spellingShingle | Alejandra Ciria Florente López Bruno Lara Perceived Duration: The Interplay of Top-Down Attention and Task-Relevant Information Frontiers in Psychology perceived duration oddball effect top-down attention task-relevant information stimulus expectations saliency |
| title | Perceived Duration: The Interplay of Top-Down Attention and Task-Relevant Information |
| title_full | Perceived Duration: The Interplay of Top-Down Attention and Task-Relevant Information |
| title_fullStr | Perceived Duration: The Interplay of Top-Down Attention and Task-Relevant Information |
| title_full_unstemmed | Perceived Duration: The Interplay of Top-Down Attention and Task-Relevant Information |
| title_short | Perceived Duration: The Interplay of Top-Down Attention and Task-Relevant Information |
| title_sort | perceived duration the interplay of top down attention and task relevant information |
| topic | perceived duration oddball effect top-down attention task-relevant information stimulus expectations saliency |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00490/full |
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