title: Lapsed attention to elapsed time? Individual differences in working memory capacity and temporal reproduction.
abstract: Working memory capacity (WMC) predicts individual differences in a wide range of mental abilities. In three experiments we examined whether WMC would predict temporal judgment. Low-WMC temporal reproductions were consistently too long for the shortest duration and too short for the longest, but were accurate (unbiased) for the intermediate. In contrast, high-WMC temporal reproductions were more accurate (unbiased) across the range. Thus low-WMC showed a classic "migration effect" (Vierordt's Law) to a greater extent than high-WMC. Furthermore reproduction errors depended more on temporal context than the absolute durations of "shortest," "longest," and "intermediate." Low-WMC reproductions were overall more variable than high-WMC. General fluid intelligence (gF) was also related to temporal bias and variability. However, WMC-related timing differences were only attenuated and not eliminated with gF as covariate. Results are discussed in terms of attention, memory, and other psychological constructs.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, United States. jbroadway@gatech.edu
authors.forename: James M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Broadway
authors.forename: Randall W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Engle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*