A computerized system for measuring time perception in human subjects

One of the less-noticed arguments associated with urban-space perception while moving is the pedestrians' subjective time perception. Indeed, in many cases, the pedestrians' perception of the time needed to travel a distance is shorter or longer than the actual time. The main objective of this paper—which has been neglected by many urban designers—is to determine the effect of the physical-spatial structure of a built environment on the pedestrians' perception of time. It is hypothesized that different spatial configurations and physical structures can have specific effects on the observer's subjective perception of time, while moving in an urban space.Since this study needed to examine different types of physical-spatial structures from a time perspective, while preventing the possible involvement of other non-physical factors that affect people's time estimates, real urban environments received limited use in this study. Instead, the researchers used a virtual-reality technique to maximize the similarity between the observers' perceived conditions and the real environment. This makes it possible to make dynamic and continuous changes to the physical-spatial variables under study in a semi-real context, and to control other variables affecting the time variable. In addition, to achieve a systematic and logical review, the researchers analyzed the effects of the physical-spatial structures in nine defined simulated tests on pedestrians' subjective time perception. The results supported the hypothesis of a logical relationship between certain physical-spatial configurations and the observer's subjective time perception while moving in an urban space. The logical relationships between the nine configurations studied in this paper were presented as part of the study’s practical results.

Product configurators have been important enablers of customised product design. In a configuration process, customers need to specify the attribute choices that best satisfy their needs. A combination of customer decisions then informs the desired product. Psychology and information retrieval researchers have acknowledged that time is an important factor in measuring customer satisfaction with decision-making process. Some recent studies have also shown that the subjective perception of time is an even more relevant measure of customer satisfaction. However, it remains unclear what factors are most significant in affecting a person's subjective perception of time. This study investigates the relationship between people's experience with the on-line configuration process and their subjective perceptions of the time involved. Empirical experiments are designed to answer the relevant research questions. The experiment's results show that two factors, namely the difficulty of the task and the customers' motivation to process information, both significantly affect customers' perceptions of time. We also find that customers' perceptions of time are significantly correlated with their satisfaction with the configured products, and that perceived time is moderately correlated with satisfaction with the configuration process.

Signatures of Subjective Time Perception in the ERP During Stimulus Encoding

Optokinetic stimulation affects temporal estimation in healthy humans

Experimentation was carried out to test for a relationship between subjective time perception and ability to make temporal judgements. The performance of 20 depersonalized and derealized patients and 20 controls, was compared on a variety of tests of time judgement administered under normal laboratory conditions and under conditions which have been shown to induce or amplify distortions in subjective temporal experience. The results failed to indicate any reliable relationship between subjective temporal experience and ability to make time judgements. The performance of patients did not differ reliably from that of controls under any of the testing conditions; exposure to distorting conditions did not have a reliable effect on temporal performance and Ss who reported temporal distortions either in their past life or while actually performing the tests of time judgement, failed to perform differently from Ss who did not report distortions.

\n A música tem sido utilizada na pesquisa de percepção subjetiva de tempo por apresentar características de estrutura temporal, como o ritmo, o andamento, os acentos musicais, entre outros. A combinação destes elementos durante a escuta musical suscita a ativação de processos de atenção e memória envolvidos no processamento da percepção temporal. Face à diversidade de elementos que compõem a estrutura da música erudita ocidental, a utilização de uma análise multidimensional (MDS) tem contribuído para a pesquisa na área de cognição musical uma vez que delimita dimensões a partir de uma representação perceptual. A MDS provém de uma família de técnicas de análise de proximidade de dados, que é obtida por meio do julgamento do participante, que compara vários objetos (estímulos) em vários traços (elementos), concomitantemente. A utilização desta técnica visou identificar dimensões que influenciaram a percepção subjetiva de tempo durante uma tarefa de apreciação musical. 48 participantes (músicos e não músicos) ouviram 16 trechos musicais (20 segundos) do repertório erudito ocidental e os associaram às durações de 16, 18, 20, 22 e 24 segundos. Através da MDS foi gerada uma solução bidimensional representando a distribuição dos trechos musicais em função do julgamento de similaridade temporal. Uma análise musicológica foi realizada para avaliar os elementos musicais comuns encontrados nos trechos agrupados próximos. Foram identificados os elementos andamento, intensidade, densidade timbral e tensão, tanto para os músicos como para os não músicos. Foram identificadas duas dimensões complementares, 1) tensão e densidade timbral e 2) andamento e intensidade para os participantes músicos e 1) andamento e intensidade e 2) densidade timbral para os participantes não músicos, como responsáveis pela alteração na percepção subjetiva de tempo durante a apreciação de música erudita ocidental.\n

The effect of an olfactory stimulation on the perception of time was investigated through two different experiments based on temporal bisection tasks. In experiment 1, the durations to be classified as either short or long were centered on 400 ms while in Experiment 2 there were centered on 2000 ms. The participants were different in the two experiments (36 subjects in each one). In each experiment, half of the subjects learnt the anchor durations when smelling an unpleasant odor (decanoic acid) and the other half when smelling no odor. After the learning phase, both groups were tested with and without odor. The results showed opposite effects depending on the duration range. The subjects underestimated the time in the presence of the unpleasant odor in the short duration range while they overestimated it in the long duration range. The results have been discussed in the framework of the pacemaker-counter clock model and a potential emotional effect induced by the odor on the subjective time perception has also been considered.

The intricate role of sleep in sustaining critical physiological functions and preserving cognitive integrity is well-established. Inadequate sleep, whether in duration or quality, profoundly impairs fundamental cognitive functions, including memory consolidation, sustained attention, executive decision-making, and temporal perception. This study endeavors to explore the effects of short-term sleep restriction on subjective time perception employing both retrospective and prospective paradigms to unveil how acute sleep restriction reshapes temporal cognition in healthy adults. Following ethical approval, 31 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 35 years participated. The experimental protocol which included assessments conducted under two conditions: after four consecutive nights of regular sleep and following three nights of sleep restriction, during which participants’ sleep duration was reduced by two hours per night. Subjective time perception was evaluated using both retrospective and prospective time generation tasks (RTP and PTP). To assess cognitive performance, participants completed the Stroop test, which measures selective attention and cognitive flexibility, and the Wechsler Memory Scale-III (WMS-III), a validated instrument for evaluating short-term and working memory functions. The RTP after sleep restriction showed a significant prolongation compared to regular sleep duration (20.2 ± 8.8 vs 26.6 ± 12.3 sec, respectively; ANOVA p < 0.001). Short-term and working memory performances decreased after sleep restriction (10.8 ± 1.9 vs 10.0 ± 2.1 sec and 12.3 ± 2.1 vs 11.4 ± 2.3 sec respectively; ANOVA p ≤ 0.001 for both). Even moderate sleep restriction (e.g. a two-hour reduction) disrupts temporal cognition and memory, underscoring the critical need for sufficient sleep to sustain optimal cognitive performance in high-demand scenarios.

e22123Background: Perception of time strongly correlates with people’s current emotional state. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between subjective perception of time and le...

In today’s fast-paced society, time often feels like it’s slipping away more quickly than ever before. The constant stream of information, rapid technological advancements, and visual overload from screens have all contributed to a heightened sense of urgency and acceleration in daily life. This modern experience raises questions about how the pace of society interacts with our subjective perception of time. Visual stimuli, particularly in environments saturated with motion, advertisements, and digital content, play a significant role in shaping how fast or slow we feel time is passing. As our world speeds up visually, our sense of time may follow. Understanding the relationship between visual stimuli and time perception has broad implications for areas like design, virtual reality, and cognitive psychology, revealing how our sensory experiences shape our sense of time.

Abnormalities of the menstrual cycle were reported after infection with SARS-CoV-2 and vaccination against it, but the available data are very heterogeneous, do not reflect intermenstrual variations or regional differences, and their risk factors are missing. We performed a survey-based study among 6383 employees and students of Ulm University Hospital in Germany between March 1 and 31, 2021. Attributes of menstrual cycles such as cycle length (CL), menses duration (MD), and bleeding volume (BV) were reported as categorical variables before and after immunization against SARS-CoV-2 (first, second, third vaccination or infection). Additionally, the potential risk factors for cycle changes were evaluated and all participants reported the subjective perception of changes, their duration, and time of occurrence. The final analysis included 1726 participants. CL and BV significantly changed after vaccination, but not MD. The subjective perception showed only slight levels of agreement with the objective changes, with the highest Cohen's kappa for CL. The risk factors for the variations in CL were previous cycle irregularities, and risk factors for the changes in BV were age and body mass index. The combination of vaccines (homogenous or heterogeneous) and different types of immunization (infection and vaccination) had no significant effect on cycle irregularities. In summary, immunization against SARS-CoV-2 causes changes in the characteristics of the menstrual cycle, which are mostly temporary. The individual risk factors, but not the type of immunization, can affect the mentioned changes.

The effect of COVID-19 lockdowns on sleep time perception: Comparing actigraphy and sleep diary measures

PerPsych: An iPadOS-based open-source neuropsychological software for time perception assessment

Given the well-known problems of replicability, how is it that researchers at respected institutions continue to publish and publicize studies that are fatally flawed in the sense of not providing evidence to support their strong claims? We argue that two general problems are (a) difficulties of analyzing data with multilevel structure and (b) misinterpretation of the literature. We demonstrate with the example of a recently published claim that altering patients’ subjective perception of time can have a notable effect on physical healing. We discuss ways of avoiding or at least reducing such problems, including comparing final results with simpler analyses, moving away from shot-in-the-dark phenomenological studies, and more carefully examining previous published claims. Making incorrect choices in multilevel modeling is just one way that things can go wrong, but this example also provides a window into more general problems with complicated designs, cutting-edge statistical methods, and the connections between substantive theory, experimental design, data collection, and replication.

Intertemporal choice has been drawing attention in econophysics and neuroeconomics. Recent studies in neuroeconomics show nonlinearity in psychological time perception can explain hyperbolic discounting. In this paper, we experimentally tested the gender difference in the subjective values of intertemporal monetary rewards and that of subjective time perception. Our results show: (1) male participants have a shorter time perception regardless of the length of delay; (2)male participant's subjective value of future monetary reward is less than that of female's. This finding provides another evidence that anomalies in intertemporal discounting is due to psychological perception of delay or time-interval.