title: Depression does not affect time perception and time-to-contact estimation.
abstract: Depressed patients frequently report a subjective slowing of the passage of time. However, experimental demonstrations of altered time perception in depressed patients are not conclusive. We added a timed action task (time-to-contact estimation, TTC) and compared this indirect time perception task to the more direct classical methods of verbal time estimation, time production, and time reproduction. In the TTC estimation task, the deviations of the estimates from the veridical values (relative errors) revealed no differences between depressed patients (N= 22) and healthy controls (N= 22). Neither did the relative errors of the TTC estimates differ between groups. There was a weak trend toward higher variability of the estimates in depressed patients but only at the shortest TTC and at the fastest velocities. Time experience (subjective flow of time) as well as time perception in terms of interval timing (verbal estimation, time production, time reproduction) performed on the same subjects likewise failed to produce effects of depression. We conclude that the notion that depression has a sizeable effect on time perception cannot be maintained.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Section Experimental Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Oberfeld
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Section Experimental Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Thönes
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Section Experimental Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Benyne J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Palayoor
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Section Experimental Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Heiko
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hecht
keywords: depression; internal clock; time perception; time production; time reproduction; time-to-contact estimation; timed action task; verbal time estimation
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