Traveling in time: a time-left analogue for humans.
Two experiments studied normal humans in an analogue of the time-left procedure of J. Gibbon and R. M. Church (1981). In Experiment 1 the "standard" alternative (S) was always half the length of the "comparison" time-left link (C), and S ranged from 4 to 8 s. Humans showed an increasing preference for the time-left alternative with increasing elapsed time in the interval, and indifference points strongly supported the idea of a linear, rather than a logarithmic, time scale. Experiment 2 used some conditions in which S was greater or less than C/2, and preference for the time-left alternative varied systematically with the S/C ratio. Data from both experiments showed reasonable superposition, suggesting underlying scalar timing processes in time left in humans.
Wearden
J H
JH
Department of Psychology, Manchester University, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom. wearden@psy.man.ac.uk
D002755:Choice Behavior; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D013998:Time Perception; D014195:Travel