Abstract
In this study, an extended pacemaker-counter model was applied to crossmodal temporal discrimination. In three experiments, subjects discriminated between the durations of a constant standard stimulus and a variable comparison stimulus. In congruent trials, both stimuli were presented in the same sensory modality (i.e., both visual or both auditory), whereas in incongruent trials, each stimulus was presented in a different modality. The model accounts for the finding that temporal discrimination depends on the presentation order of the sensory modalities. Nevertheless, the model fails to explain why temporal discrimination was much better with congruent than with incongruent trials. The discussion considers possibilities to accommodate the model to this and other shortcomings.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allan, L. G., &Kristofferson, A. B. (1974). Psychophysical theories of duration discrimination.Perception & Psychophysics,16, 26–34.
Barnes, R., &Jones, M. R. (2000). Expectancy, attention, and time.Cognitive Psychology,41, 254–311.
Bendixen, A., Grimm, S., &Schröger, E. (2005). Human auditory event-related potentials predict duration judgments.Neuroscience Letters,383, 284–288.
Boring, E. G. (1957).A history of experimental psychology (2nd ed.). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Buonomano, D. V., &Karmarkar, U. R. (2002). How do we tell time?Neuroscientist,8, 42–51.
Creelman, C. D. (1962). Human discrimination of auditory duration.Journal of the Acoustical Society of America,34, 582–593.
Droit-Volet, S. (2003). Temporal experience and timing in children. In W. H. Meck (Ed.),Functional and neural mechanisms of interval timing (pp. 183–208). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Fetterman, J. G., & Killeen, P. (1995). Categorical scaling of time: Implications for clock-counter models.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes,21, 43–63.
Frankenhaeuser, M. (1959).Estimation of time, an experimental study. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
Gibbon, J. (1977). Scalar expectancy theory and Weber's law in animal timing.Psychological Review,84, 279–325.
Gibbon, J. (1991). Origins of scalar timing theory.Learning & Motivation,22, 3–38.
Goldstone, S., & Goldfarb, J. L. (1964). Auditory and visual time judgment.Journal of General Psychology,70, 369–387.
Goldstone, S., & Lhamon, W. T. (1974). Studies of auditory-visual differences in human time judgment: 1. Sounds are judged longer than lights.Perceptual & Motor Skills,39, 63–82.
Goodfellow, L. D. (1934). An empirical comparison of audition, vision, and touch in the discrimination of short intervals of time.American Journal of Psychology,46, 243–258.
Grimm, S., Widmann, A., & Schröger, E. (2004). Differential processing of duration changes within short and long sounds in humans.Neuroscience Letters,356, 83–86.
Grondin, S. (2001). From physical time to the first and second moments of psychological time.Psychological Bulletin,127, 22–44.
Grondin, S. (2003). Studying psychological time with Weber's law. In R. Buccheri, M. Saniga, & W. M. Stuckey (Eds.),The nature of time: Geometry, physics, and perception (pp. 33–41). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Grondin, S., Ivry, R. B., Franz, E., Perreault, L., & Metthé, L. (1996). Markers' influence on the duration discrimination of intermodal intervals.Perception & Psychophysics,58, 424–433.
Grondin, S., Meilleur-Wells, G., & Lachance, R. (1999). When to start explicit counting in a time-intervals discrimination task: A critical point in the timing process of humans.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,25, 993–1004.
Grondin, S., & Rousseau, R. (1991). Judging the relative duration of multimodal short empty time intervals.Perception & Psychophysics,49, 245–256.
Ivry, R. B., & Hazeltine, R. E. (1995). Perception and production of temporal intervals across a range of durations: Evidence for a common timing mechanism.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,21, 3–18.
Kaernbach, C. (1991). Simple adaptive testing with the weighted up-down method.Perception & Psychophysics,49, 227–229.
Kant, I. (1998).Kritik der reinen Vernunft [Critique of pure reason]. Hamburg: Meiner. (Original work published 1787)
Killeen, P. R., & Taylor, T. J. (2000). How the propagation of error through stochastic counters affects time discrimination and other psychophysical judgments.Psychological Review,107, 430–459.
Klapproth, F. (2002). The effect of study-test modalities on the remembrance of subjective duration from long-term memory.Behavioural Processes,59, 37–46.
Klapproth, F. (2003). Notable results regarding temporal memory and modality. In H. Helfrich (Ed.),Time and mind II: Information processing perspectives (pp. 79–96). Göttingen: Hogrefe & Huber.
Large, E. W., & Jones, M. R. (1999). The dynamics of attending: How we track time varying events.Psychological Review,106, 119–159.
Lewis, P. A., & Miall, R. C. (2003). Distinct systems for automatic and cognitively controlled time measurement: Evidence from neuroimaging.Current Opinion in Neurobiology,13, 250–255.
Loftus, G. R. (2002). Analysis, interpretation, and visual presentation of experimental data. In H. Pashler (Ed.),Stevens' handbook of experimental psychology: Vol. 4. Methodology in experimental psychology (3rd ed., pp. 339–390). New York: Wiley.
Mach, E. (1865). Untersuchungen über den Zeitsinn des Ohres.Sitzungsberichte der mathematisch-naturwissenschaftlichen Classe der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften,51, 133–150.
Mattes, S., & Ulrich, R. (1998). Directed attention prolongs the perceived duration of a brief stimulus.Perception & Psychophysics,60, 1305–1317.
McAuley, J. D., & Jones, M. R. (2003). Modeling effects of rhythmic context on perceived duration: A comparison of interval and entrainment approaches to short-interval timing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,29, 1102–1125.
Meck, W. H. (Ed.) (2003).Functional and neural mechanisms of interval timing. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Michon, J. A. (1985). The compleat time experiencer. In J. A. Michon & J. L. Jackson (Eds.),Time, mind, and behavior (pp. 21–52). Berlin: Springer.
Mitrani, L., Shekerdjiiski, S., Gourevitch, A., &Yanev, S. (1977). Identification of short time intervals under LSD25 and mescaline.Activitas Nervosa Superior,19, 103–104.
Münsterberg, H. (1889).Beiträge zur experimentellen Psychologie: Heft 2. Freiburg: Mohr.
Nobre, A. C., &O'Reilly, J. (2004). Time is of the essence.Trends in Cognitive Sciences,8, 387–389.
Penney, T. B., Gibbon, J., &Meck, W. H. (2000). Differential effects of auditory and visual signals on clock speed and temporal memory.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance,26, 1770–1787.
Poynter, D. (1989). Judging the duration of time intervals: A process of remembering segments of experience. In I. Levin & D. Zakay (Eds.),Time and human cognition: A life-span perspective (pp. 305–331). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Rammsayer, T. H. (1999). Neuropharmacological evidence for different timing mechanisms in humans.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,52B, 273–286.
Rammsayer, T. H. (2003). Sensory and cognitive mechanisms in temporal processing elucidated by a model systems approach. In H. Helfrich (Ed.),Time and mind II: Information processing perspectives (pp. 97–113). Göttingen: Hogrefe & Huber.
Rammsayer, T. H., &Grondin, S. (2000). Psychophysics of human timing. In R. Miller (Ed.),Time and the brain (pp. 157–167). Reading, U.K.: Harwood.
Rammsayer, T. H., &Lima, S. D. (1991). Duration discrimination of filled and empty auditory intervals: Cognitive and perceptual factors.Perception & Psychophysics,50, 565–574.
Rammsayer, T. [H.], &Ulrich, R. (2001). Counting models of temporal discrimination.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,8, 270–277.
Rammsayer, T. [H.], &Ulrich, R. (2005). No evidence for qualitative differences in the processing of short and long temporal intervals.Acta Psychologica,120, 141–171.
Roeckelein, J. E. (2000).The concept of time in psychology: A resource book and annotated bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Stevens, S. S., &Greenbaum, H. B. (1966). Regression effect in psychophysical judgment.Perception & Psychophysics,1, 439–446.
Sturt, M. (1925).The psychology of time. London: Kegan Paul.
Treisman, M., Faulkner, A., Naish, P. L. N., &Brogan, D. (1990). The internal clock: Evidence for a temporal oscillator underlying time perception with some estimates of its characteristic frequency.Perception,19, 705–743.
Vierordt, K. (1868).Der Zeitsinn nach Versuchen. Tübingen: Laupp.
Wearden, J. H., Edwards, H., Fakhri, M., &Percival, A. (1998). Why “sounds are judged longer than lights”: Application of a model of the internal clock in humans.Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology,51B, 97–120.
Wing, A. M. (2002). Voluntary timing and brain function: An information processing approach.Brain & Cognition,48, 7–30.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Ul 116/6-3, RA 450/9-3).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Ulrich, R., Nitschke, J. & Rammsayer, T. Crossmodal temporal discrimination: Assessing the predictions of a general pacemaker-counter model. Perception & Psychophysics 68, 1140–1152 (2006). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193716
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03193716