title: Effects of stimulus order on duration discrimination sensitivity are under attentional control.
abstract: When participants are asked to discriminate between a fixed-magnitude standard stimulus and a variable comparison stimulus, discrimination performance is typically better when the standard precedes rather than follows the comparison. To date it is unclear whether this Type B effect is the sign of an automatic process or whether it is under participants' control. In a series of three experiments, participants compared the duration of two successively presented intervals. At the beginning of each trial, a symbolic cue either indicated the temporal position of the comparison validly or it was neutral with respect to comparison position. With neutral cues, a strong Type B effect was observed in all experiments. With valid cues, however, this effect was reduced. This pattern of results suggests that the Type B effect is, at least in part, under participants' control. Recently, we have shown that the Type B effect might be due to the formation of an internal reference that is dynamically updated from trial to trial. Within this framework, the attention-based reduction of the Type B effect might be explained by a flexible weighting mechanism that regulates the level of integration of remote stimulus information.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Dyjas
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen.
authors.forename: Karin M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Bausenhart
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Tübingen.
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ulrich
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology; D003463:Cues; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011897:Random Allocation; D013997:Time Factors; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult