Expectancy, controlled attention and automatic attention in prospective temporal judgments.
Two experiments indicate that prospective judgments of a temporal target are influenced by nontarget temporal features. The basic task was to reproduce a target interval marked by visual events. In addition, visual or auditory interfering events were delivered. Experiment 1 showed that temporal reproduction is shorter when the interfering events occupy a late rather than early position during the target interval, a result explained in terms of expectancy, which causes attention shifts. This study also revealed that similar trends are obtained whether the interfering event involves a specific task or is irrelevant. Experiment 2 confirmed the position effect, and showed that the duration of an irrelevant cue can influence judgment of the target interval, as if it were also timed without appropriate control.
Macar
Françoise
F
Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives, CNRS, Marseille, France. macar@lnf.cnrs-mrs.fr
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012718:Set, Psychology; D013998:Time Perception