Fast or Slow: How Temporal Work Design Shapes Time Perception and Job Performance

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.

This study aims to identify the factors affecting the formation of visitors’ perception of time in the two heritage sites of Naqsh-e Jahan and Merdeka from the interpretive approach. The explanatory method was used to ensure a deep understanding of visitors’ perceptions. Initially, 376 questionnaires were collected in Naqsh-e Jahan and 366 questionnaires in Merdeka. The Friedman test showed the differences between visitors’ prioritization of time perception variables. It was concluded that the sub-indices of environmental variables and special days rejected the hypothesis. In the qualitative part, researchers used methods of interviews and narrative stories based on their observations and lived experiences. Narrative descriptions allowed researchers to become aware of visitors’ perceptions and to make meaningful interpretations in which social context and culture are considered. Qualitative data analysis was performed by the triple coding method. 4 core categories were obtained, based on which the perception of time was formed in the visitors’ minds. These categories are sense of rhythm, speed of time, sense of change, and normative components of each country. It states that just as the amplification of spatial norms in a particular place is effective in strengthening the sense of place, it can also be generalized in time.

BackgroundConversations about end of life rarely take place beyond healthcare spaces and in advance of imminent death. As the Canadian ageing population increases and new policies and options emerge for end‐of‐life choices, there will be an increasing need for supports for decision‐making on end of life. Time Moving was a participatory art exhibit created to engage participants in reflections on end‐of‐life experiences and the ways in which their perception of time fluctuated within these moments.DesignA participatory and constructivist approach informed decisions on exhibit design and analysis. The Time Moving exhibit was installed in a downtown university hall for 10 days during the 2019 annual DesignTO festival, open to all members of the public. The exhibit was used as the primary method of data collection. There were three prompts informed by concepts from prior work on time perception. Participants were invited to respond by drawing, writing or constructing.OutcomeThere were over 120 contributions of participants over the duration of the Time Moving exhibit. These contributions revealed new insights related to temporal perception and end‐of‐life experiences. Participants shared their perception of time during end‐of‐life experiences in a variety of ways, revealing a diversity of perceptions of time beyond calendar and clock time, including time experienced as a spiral.ConclusionsThe insights on time perception highlight opportunities for approaching dialogue on end of life and in grief support, and for exhibit as a mechanism for research and education.Patient or Public ContributionAs a public exhibit, over 120 people contributed ideas, personal stories, drawings and other creative outputs to the exhibit. An estimated 250 people visited the exhibit.

Delay discounting refers to the decline in the value of a payoff as the objective delay to its fulfillment increases. Recent research on delay discounting has examined its relationship with time and risk perceptions through correlational studies. Manipulated experiments were conducted in the current research to further investigate the causal links among the relevant variables. Experiment 1 revealed causal influences of objective delay on both risk perception and delay discounting as well as a positive correlation between risk perception and delay discounting. By manipulating risk perception, Experiment 2 demonstrated further a causal impact of risk perception on delay discounting. Experiment 3 manipulated time perception and provided further evidence for causal pathways from time perception to risk perception and delay discounting. Overall, the results verified a causal chain from objective delay to delay discounting through time and risk perceptions in support of the implicit-risk hypothesis regarding delay discounting.

Social media is increasingly prevalent in the daily lives of young people as a source of entertainment and social interaction. However, the time spent on such stimuli reduces availability for other activities that used to be more prevalent, such as reading, development of motor skills, and face-to-face social interaction. Little is known about the effects of this habit changes on the cognitive development of young individuals. One possible way to assess cognitive investment in a particular task is through the perception of time passage. In the present study, we investigated the cognitive investment in different activities and its relationship with the perception of time passage in young individuals aged 14 to 15 years old. Four groups of volunteers were formed. Each group performed a different activity for 23 minutes. Group 1 spent the 23 minutes browsing a social network (TikTok); Group 2 read classics of Brazilian literature; Group 3 played the board game “Pictionary”; and Group 4 was instructed to practice a complex pen spinning around the fingers. The duration of the activity was not disclosed, and at the end of the 23 minutes, volunteers were individually asked how much time they thought had passed during the activity. The group that engaged in TikTok had an average perception of 20 minutes, a value almost identical to the pen spinning, which was 19 minutes, with no statistically significant difference between them (p > 0.05). On the other hand, activities requiring greater cognitive effort and social interaction, such as reading and the board game, had average time perceptions of 25 and 28 minutes, respectively. The latter two even reached time perception values of 40 and 44 minutes, which were the highest in the entire experiment. According to analysis of variance, groups with the lowest mean time perception (TikTok and pen spinning) were significantly different from the board game group (p < 0.05). Based on our results, we can conclude that the nature of the activity undertaken affects time perception on the brain. This may be related to the amount of new information presented and absorbed during novelty and learning activities. Engaging in new and cognitive demanding experiences give the impression that time lasted longer. Conversely, repetitive activities without new stimuli give the sensation that the same time interval seems shorter. Further studies investigating the consequences of overexposure to repetitive and unstimulating activities are necessary to understand their potential effects on the brain development of adolescents.

Human perception of time depends on the subjective structure of the individual, so everyone is different. However, the performance of these time perceptions is also affected by objective neurological factors, such as biological rhythm, cortical striatum circuit, and circadian rhythm. This research has summarized a small part of some factors that affect the human body’s time perception and looks for the connection between these factors. This research introduced how the pineal gland adjusts the biological rhythm through the received sunlight signal so that the biological rhythm of the body is consistent with the cycle of the environment. It introduced how the cortical striatum interacts with dopamine energy, and it can also explain how the coding reward prediction error (RPE) experiment proves that the cortical striatum and dopamine interaction helps us distinguish the difference between time intervals. Finally, this research introduced some areas of the brain that affect the circadian rhythm, including the prefrontal cortex, basal ganglion, and striatum, and induced the projection of dense parts from black matter. This research also introduced a mainstream neurological time perception model, and introduced through which brain areas the signal reaches the prefrontal cortex of the brain and finally makes “perception”. The introduction of time perception in this research is not comprehensive, and the topic of the role of the nervous system in time perception also needs to be studied in more depth.

32 extraverted and 32 introverted college students rated the interest value and estimated the duration of 3-min. intervals filled with reading. There were 3 dull and 3 interesting readings. It was hypothesized that time perceptions of extraverts and introverts would differ when their interest in the task was dissimilar. But no personality differences in time perception and few in interest were found; both extraverts and introverts judged the intervals to be shorter when the reading was interesting.

During the protracted collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, lay of distorted perceptions of time (e.g., time slowing, days blurring together, uncertainty about the future) have been widespread. Known as "temporal disintegration" in psychiatric literature, these distortions are associated with negative mental health consequences. However, the prevalence and predictors of temporal disintegration are poorly understood. We examined perceptions of time passing and their associations with lifetime stress and trauma and pandemic-related secondary stress as COVID-19 spread across the United States. A probability-based national sample (N = 5,661) from the NORC AmeriSpeak online panel, which had completed a mental and physical health survey prior to the pandemic, completed two surveys online during March 18-April 18, 2020, and September 26-October 16, 2020. Distorted time perceptions and other pandemic-related experiences were assessed. Present focus, blurring weekdays and weekdays together, and uncertainty about the future were common experiences reported by over 65% of the sample 6 months into the pandemic. Half of the sample reported time speeding up or slowing down. Predictors of temporal disintegration include prepandemic mental health diagnoses, daily pandemic-related media exposure and secondary stress (e.g., school closures, lockdown), financial stress, and lifetime stress and trauma exposure. During the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, distortions in time perception were very common and associated with prepandemic mental health, lifetime stress and trauma exposure, and pandemic-related media exposure and stressors. Given that temporal disintegration is a risk factor for mental health challenges, these findings have potential implications for public mental health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

In 1913, feeling the European uneasy spirits due to the threatening closeness of the Great War’s outbreak, the first collection/poem book of Jose Moreno Villa (poet and painter who stands in between Modernism and Avant-gardes at the beginning of the XX century of the Spanish literature) appears published with the title of Garba . This work has been considered to be a modernist book of youth, inside a Modernism « a la andaluza ,» conceiving Modernism as a syncretic «movement», hybrid from different trends, from Parnasianism to Symbolism, suffering from the decadentism of the fin de siecle’s fits. In a general sense, however, Garba can be seen as a work of its times in its European context, a work proper to a historical and social moment of crisis in the traditional values and changes in time perceptions. Without forgetting about its Spanish context, this short analysis has the aim of highlighting the unity of the work as a whole, a unity which is based on a cyclical structure close to the time perception of Nature —against mechanized time—, trying to break free from that alienated feeling which the industrialization of the beginning of the century conveys. Therefore, Garba may be seen as a work which reflects all the concerns about time perception which other contemporary authors were suffering far beyond the Spanish frontiers.

A time interval can seem longer or shorter in relation to clock time depending upon the stimulus information encountered, the internal states of the perceiver, and what is remembered. Temporal perceptions may have important commercial implications when a time interval is comprised of an ad, a shopping episode, a service encounter, or some other consumptive event. Because music is often used by marketers to fill time intervals, we used background music to manipulate stimulus characteristics (congruity of central and peripheral elements of radio ads) and arousal states of listeners in an experiment. Arousal was found to moderate the influence of stimulus congruity on perceived time such that congruity contributed positively to retrospective duration estimates among subjects exposed to soothing (versus arousing) music. We develop practical implications and directions for future research on antecedents and consequences of time perception. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Public transport travel time perception: A comparative study of passenger estimates and actual bus trip durations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the suitability of job and work design theory for investigating knowledge workers’ productivity. The review is a response to recommendation and adoption of the motivational human resource management approach by a number of knowledge management researchers. The authors show that the existing literature on this topic overlooks key criticisms of HRM job and work design theory itself. The authors suggest modifications.Design/methodology/approachThe paper proceeds by outlining knowledge management researchers’ arguments rejecting the application of traditional measurement approaches to investigating knowledge workers’ productivity. The review develops to examine the various arguments for adopting work design theory and considers the key contributions and critiques in this field. Drawing on the insights of key HRM work design critics, the paper concludes by offering suggestions for a model suitable for examining the drivers of knowledge work productivity in process.FindingsThe principle finding is that Morgeson and Humphrey’s (2006) Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ) stand as the most conceptually consistent and methodologically considered human resource management work design theory. However, this model must itself be modified to include a category of organizational contextual work characteristics. For application to the filed of knowledge management, WDQ must also be expanded to include knowledge sharing, role breadth self-efficacy and employee well-being as key work design mediators and outcomes.Research limitations/implicationsGreater consideration needs to be given to the distinction between knowledge sharing as a work design mediator and as a work design outcome. Morgeson and Humphrey themselves note that the “common method variance” problems arising in psychometric research have been reduced but not completely eliminated from their model.Practical implicationsSurvey instruments based on the recommended model potentially provide a valuable means for understanding and enhancing productivity in a variety of knowledge intensive service industries. The pronounced benefit of this model is that it is applicable in cross-industry and cross-occupational contexts, unlike many existing knowledge worker productivity models. This is an advantage, given the centrality of the inter-connectivity of different types of activities and industries in knowledge work.Social implicationsWork design prioritizes employee motivation and support and links this to the quality of work and the well-being of clients. The benefits of well-designed knowledge work extend well beyond the generation of specific innovations and macroeconomic productivity improvements.Originality/valueJob design and work design theory have been applied in the field of knowledge management. However, the applications have largely overlooked key critiques of the established models in the human resource management literature. The paper fills this gap. Its original suggestions for modifying Moregeson and Humphry’s (2006) WDQ reflect the authors’ in-depth analysis of the literature.

Introduction This study explored the impact of transformational and transactional leadership styles on emotional climate, task performance, and time perception in a university educational context. Additionally, it analyzed the evolution of emotional climate throughout a group activity focused on collaborative LEGO figure construction. Method A quasi-experimental design was implemented with 93 university students divided into 23 groups. Each group completed two construction tasks under distinct leadership conditions: one focused on the final outcome (transactional) and the other on process facilitation (transformational). Emotional climate (positive and negative) was assessed at three time points (beginning, midpoint, and end), along with task performance, time perception, and qualitative reflections on the experience in both leadership conditions. Results The findings showed that transformational leadership fostered a sustained increase in positive emotional climate, improved task performance, and greater satisfaction with the activity. In contrast, transactional leadership was associated with a progressive increase in negative emotions, lower construction accuracy, and higher perceptions of emotional discomfort. Qualitative responses reflected that in both cases the experiences were collaborative, motivating, and playful. However, under transformational leadership more positive emotions were experienced, whereas under transactional leadership, due to greater perceived difficulties in task execution, negative emotions such as frustration and stress increased. Discussion The results highlight the pedagogical value of transformational leadership in promoting positive emotional climates and effective collaborative learning environments. Its integration into teacher education programs is recommended as a strategy to enhance students' socioemotional wellbeing and academic engagement.

Job knowledge tests (JKTs) are widely used for selection and promotion in organizations, as well as for certification in professions such as law, medicine, and education. Despite this, evidence regarding the criterion-related validity of JKTs is based primarily on a very brief meta-analysis published more than 30 years ago (Dye et al., 1993). The present study provides an important update regarding JKTs, as well as some of the first meta-analytic evidence concerning the predictive validity of knowledge-based professional certification tests. Analyses of data from 87 independent samples revealed overall mean operational validity estimates of .30 for job performance (k = 62, SDr = .14), .35 for training performance (k = 28, SDr = .07), and -.09 for turnover (k = 9, SDr = .02). Operational validities were larger for job-specific JKTs (.36) than for organization- and occupation-specific tests (.19 and .21, respectively). In addition, JKTs used for selection or promotion purposes were associated with higher validity (.47) than tests used for research (.31) or certification purposes (.21). Finally, we tested the mediating role of job knowledge between other antecedents and job performance. Results suggested that job knowledge fully explains relations between cognitive ability and job performance, partially explains relations between job experience and performance, and does not explain relations between conscientiousness and performance. Overall, these results provide a much-needed update regarding the use of JKTs for decision making, as well as the role job knowledge plays in other prominent predictors of job performance.

Work design theory and research suggests that increasing the supply of work characteristics increases employee motivation. This perspective is limited because it fails to recognize the role of individual preferences for work characteristics. To qualify and expand this more is better perspective, I draw upon person-job fit theory to propose an interactionist model, suggesting that the effects of work characteristics on employee motivation is best understood when considering the joint effects of work characteristics supply and employee preferences. I first suggest that task characteristics congruence, knowledge characteristics congruence, and social characteristics congruence are positively related to psychological empowerment and negatively related to psychological strain and that these relationships are stronger at high levels of the work characteristics as opposed to low levels of the work characteristics. Second, I suggest that the relationship between task, knowledge, and social characteristics oversupply is non-linear, whereby psychological empowerment will increase at modest levels of oversupply and will decrease at excessive levels of oversupply, and psychological strain will decrease at modest levels of oversupply and will increase at excessive levels of oversupply. Third, I suggest that task, knowledge, and social characteristics undersupply is negatively related to psychological empowerment and positively related to psychological strain. Fourth, I suggest that task characteristics congruence, oversupply, and undersupply are related to proactive performance behaviors, knowledge characteristics congruence, oversupply, and undersupply are related to innovative behaviors, and social characteristics congruence, oversupply, and undersupply are related to interpersonal citizenship behaviors, through psychological empowerment. Fifth, I suggest that undersupply of work characteristics is related to a reduction in active employee performance behaviors and an increase in job crafting behavior through manifestations of psychological strain. In total, this dissertation seeks to contribute to work design theory and person-environment fit theory by illustrating that active employee behaviors depend upon the joint effects of individuals and organizations and that work characteristics congruence motivates active employee behaviors.