Modulating time perception – effects of clock manipulations on perception and cognition
Final Report Abstract
Time perception is influenced by cognitive processes and affective states. While a strong focus of attention on certain tasks, events, etc. as well as positive affective states are associated with an acceleration of the perceived passage of time and a relative retrospective underestimation of time intervals, stimulus deprivation as well as negative affective states lead to opposite effects. These relationships have been intensively researched and are considered to be empirically well established. However, the question to what extent it is possible to "inversely" modulate processes of time perception in an experiment by manipulating external clocks and thus to influence affective states and attentional processes of participants has not yet been clarified and is hardly investigated. In the experiments of the project, these possible effects of clock manipulations on time perception and cognitive performance during different tasks were to be investigated and systematically located in the field of time perception research for the first time. With respect to established cognitive models of time perception (internal clock models), the project results should provide new perspectives on our understanding of causal relations and mechanisms of action between arousal, attentional processes, and time perception (purely unidirectional or bidirectional?). For example, can the creation of the impression that time is passing quickly increase the level of arousal and lead to an increased focus of attentional resources on a task to be processed? The results of the project speak against the assumption of a general bidirectional relationship. Rather, the manipulation of clock speed was found to have no consistent effects on performance in cognitive tests. Also on the level of cognitive and affective indicators, we found very heterogeneous correlations with clock speed.
Publications
-
Adapting to the pandemic: longitudinal effects of social restrictions on time perception and boredom during the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany. Scientific Reports, 12(1).
Wessels, Marlene; Utegaliyev, Nariman; Bernhard, Christoph; Welsch, Robin; Oberfeld, Daniel; Thönes, Sven & von, Castell Christoph
-
Vestibular Stimulation Causes Contraction of Subjective Time. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 16.
Utegaliyev, Nariman; von Castell, Christoph & Hecht, Heiko
-
Visual and vestibular stimulation interact in time perception. Poster, 44. European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP), Nijmegen.
Utegaliyev, N., von Castell, C. & Hecht, H.
