title: Temporal preparation decreases perceptual latency: evidence from a clock paradigm.
abstract: A clock paradigm was employed to assess whether temporal preparation decreases the time to detect the onset of a stimulus-that is, perceptual latency. In four experiments participants watched a revolving clock hand while listening to soft or loud target tones under high or low temporal preparation. At the end of each trial, participants reported the clock hand position at the onset of the target tone. The deviation of the reported clock hand position from the actual position indexed perceptual latency. As expected, perceptual latency decreased with target tone intensity. Most importantly, however, greater temporal preparation decreased perceptual latency in all four experiments, especially for soft tones, which supports rather directly the idea that temporal preparation diminishes the duration of perceptual processing.
authors.affiliation: University of Tubingen, Tubingen, Germany. tanja.seifried@uni-tuebingen.de
authors.forename: Tanja
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Seifried
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ulrich
authors.forename: Karin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Bausenhart
authors.forename: Bettina
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rolke
authors.forename: Allen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Osman
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult