Volume 9, Number 1, Article 9, Pages 1-13 doi:10.1167/9.1.9 http://journalofvision.org/9/1/9/ ISSN 1534-7362
Shifts in spatial attention affect the perceived duration of events
Guido M. Cicchini
Department of Psychology, Università Vita-Salute, San Raffaele, Milan, Italy
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Maria Concetta Morrone
University of Pisa and Stella Maris Scientific Institute, Pisa, Italy
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Abstract

We investigated the relationship between attention and perceived duration of visual events with a double-task paradigm. The primary task was to discriminate the size change of a 2° circle presented 10° left, right, above, or below fixation; the secondary task was to judge the temporal separation (from 133 ms to 633 ms) of two equiluminant horizontal bars (10 deg × 2 deg) briefly flashed 12° above or below fixation. The stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA) between primary and secondary task ranged from −1300 ms to +1000 ms. Temporal intervals in proximity of the onset of the primary task stimuli were perceived strongly compressed by up to 40%. The effect was proportional to the size of the interval with a maximum effect at 100 ms SOA. Control experiments show that neither primary-task difficulty, nor the type of primary task discrimination (form or motion, or equiluminant or luminance contrast) nor spatial congruence between primary and secondary task alter the effect. Interestingly, the compression occurred only when the intervals are marked by bars presented in separated spatial locations: when the interval is marked by two bars flashed in the same spatial position no temporal distortion was found. These data indicate that attention can alter perceived duration when the brain has to compare the passage of time at two different spatial positions, corroborating earlier findings that mechanisms of time perception may monitor separately the various spatial locations possibly at high level of analysis.

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History
Received May 5, 2008; published January 13, 2009
Citation
Cicchini, G. M., & Morrone, M. C. (2009). Shifts in spatial attention affect the perceived duration of events. Journal of Vision, 9(1):9, 1-13, http://journalofvision.org/9/1/9/, doi:10.1167/9.1.9.
Keywords
spatial attention, stimulus onset asynchrony, double-task paradigm, time perception, flicker, equiluminance
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