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Time perception
Written by: Louis Jolyon West

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.Time perception, experience or awareness of the passage of time

The human experience of change is complex. One primary element clearly is that of a
succession of events, but distinguishable events are separated by more or less lengthy
intervals that are called durations. Thus, sequence and duration are fundamental
.aspects of what is perceived in change
Manifestly, duration is relative to the events people isolate in the sequences through
which they live: the duration of a kiss, of a meal, of a trip. A given interval always can
be subdivided into a sequential chain delimiting briefer durations, as with the regular
units that provide empirical measures of time: the second, the day, the year. Indeed,
human experience is not simply that of one single series of events, but of a plurality of
overlapping changes. The duration of a radio program, for example, can combine with
.that of a breakfast, both being inserted within the longer period of an ocean voyage
Humans seem to be unable to live without some concept of time. Ancient philosophies
sought to relate the concept of time to some objective reality to which it would
correspond. Ren Descartes (15961650) inaugurated a critical era of philosophy by
stressing the ancient problem of the origin of ideas, including the idea of time.
Immanuel Kant (17241804), providing a radical answer to the epistemological
problem of time, wrote that we do not appreciate time objectively as a physical thing;
that it is simply a pure form of sensible intuition. Other philosophers of the 18th and
19th centuries sought to explain the notion of time as arising from association and
.memory of successive perceptions
A move to empirical psychology emerged with the growth of research on the
introspective data of experience. From about mid-19th century, under the influence of
the psychophysical notions of Gustav Theodor Fechner, psychologists conducted
experiments to study the relationship between time as perceived and time as measured
in physics. Their work with adults gradually spread to the study of children and of
animals. The psychologists then broadened their investigations of time to cover all
.forms of adaptation to sequence and duration
Sequential activities
Adaptation to successive events

One may respond to stimulation in an immediate way (as in unconditioned reflex

action) without taking the element of time into account. Stimulation, however, can
also signal an event to follow; then it has meaning only as part of the sequence of

which it is the first term: bell announcing dinner, a road sign, or an approaching
danger. People react to such stimuli with anticipatory behaviour that is adapted to a
stimulus or action that has not yet occurred. The principles that govern such timebinding adaptation are none other than those of conditioning. One event becomes
.conditioned as the signal for another stimulus that is to be sought or avoided
The bottle-fed infant who initially reacts to the nipple on his lips with a simple
sucking reflex is gradually conditioned to stop crying when he sees the bottle (the
signal for feeding). Later he may learn to react to even more secondary signals that
announce the arrival of the bottle; e.g., being lifted from the crib or hearing the sounds
of his mother warming the milk in the kitchen. His behaviour has come to incorporate
.the temporal dimension of the events
According to the principles of instrumental conditioning, one stimulus becomes the
signal for an ensuing event only if the second stimulus elicits an adaptive reaction
(consummatory or aversive) and only if the order of the sequence is repeated.
Conditioning tends to be established most rapidly when the interval between the
signal (conditioned stimulus) and the unconditioned stimulus is quite brief. Ivan P.
Pavlov estimated that the optimum interval for such a sequence was 0.5 second,
which corresponds approximately to the intervals characteristic of sequences that are
most accurately discriminable perceptually (see below Perception of sequence and
.duration)
Aside from adapting the individual to the order of a sequence, conditioning also
adapts to the duration between signal and immediately effective stimulus. Response to
signal tends to occur after about the same interval that separated the two stimuli
during conditioning. Thus, an animal may be trained to delay a response for some
.time after the signal (delayed conditioning)
This form of adaptation is most pervasive in human behaviour, permitting people to
anticipate sequences of events in their environment so that they can prepare to cope
.appropriately with what is yet to happen
Adaptation to periodic change

In 1912 one of Pavlovs students (I.P. Feokritova) demonstrated that a dog

accustomed to being fed every 30 minutes would begin to drool toward the end of
each half-hour period. It was clear evidence of conditioning to time; the between.feedings interval itself served as a conditioned stimulus
That discovery underscores the ever-present periodicity of daily living, especially on
the biological level: rhythms of activity and sleep, rhythms of eating and lovemaking.
As conditioning intervenes, anticipatory experiences of hunger, fatigue, or arousal
.serve our adaptation to ecological demands

Allowance should also be made for the daily, or circadian, rhythms in metabolic
activity (e.g., daily cycles of temperature change). There is evidence that these
fundamental biological functions can synchronize with the rhythmic phases of
environmental (exogenous) change. Thus within a few days after a factory worker has
been assigned to the night shift, highs and lows of his daily fluctuations of
temperature will be inversed. The rhythmic changes in body temperature persists,
nevertheless, suggesting an innate (endogenous) basis for circadian phenomena. Such
a hypothesis would mean that the gradual establishment of human circadian rhythms
of sleep or temperature results from maturation of the nervous system rather than
from conditioning in the strict sense. Experiments begun in 1962, in which men lived
in caves or other enclosures for months deprived of temporal cues from the
environment, also demonstrated the enduring nature of rhythms in body temperature
and in sleepwakefulness. The rhythmic periods, however, sometimes expanded, the
subject beginning to live on an approximately two-day cycle without being aware of
.it
Through conditioning to time and by way of circadian rhythms, human physiology
provides a kind of biological clock that offers points of reference for temporal
.orientation
Perception of sequence and duration
The psychological present

To perceive is to become aware of stimulation. Awareness of sequence or duration

may, at first glance, seem inconsistent with the definition of perceiving. In a
mathematical sense, certainly, the present is only a point along the continuum of
becoming, an instant when future is transformed into past. Nevertheless, there is
indeed a more prolonged psychological present, a brief period during which
successive events seem to form a perceptual unity and can be apprehended without
calling on memory. There is a perceptual field for time just as there is a visual field.
.The rate or speed of a sequence determines the limits of the time field
When a metronome tics two or three times a second, one perceives an integral
sequence, becoming aware of a rhythmic auditory series characterized by a
perceptually distinct frequency. When the ticks come less often, howeverat
intervals of three seconds, saythe frequency or sequence no longer is perceived.
Each physically discrete sound impulse remains an isolated perceptual event; each
tick is no longer perceived as belonging to the same temporal field as the one that
follows. Similar effects can be achieved by playing a recording of music or speech at
a very slow rate. Music or spoken sentences are recognizable only when their
elements (melody, rhythmic patterns, phrase) are presented at an optimal speed that
permits significant perceptual unity; that is, only when they belong to the relative
.simultaneity of the psychological present

The perceived field of time also depends on the number of stimulus elements
presented. When a clock strikes three or four times, one knows without counting that
it is three or four oclock. At noon one must count; the first chimes no longer belong
to the psychological present that includes the last. Most people also can repeat a series
of letters or numbers they hear, so long as there are no more than seven or eight
elements. This ability varies with the degree of perceptual (e.g., semantic)
organization among the elements. While most adults can apprehend only about eight
letters, they can grasp and repeat without fault sentences of 20 to 25 syllables (see
.also attention: Perception and recall)
Perception of sequence

A series of physically discrete stimuli that impinge too rapidly on a sensory structure
(e.g., flashes of light on the retina) may produce perceptual fusion; the flashes will be
indiscriminable and will appear to be uninterrupted light. The experience of fusion
yields to one of discontinuity over distinctive critical ranges of frequency for some of
the senses: visual flicker appears under prescribed experimental conditions at about
60 flashes per second, auditory flutter at about 1,000 interruptions per second, and
tactual vibration at about 4,000 pulses per second. These values depend on differences
in the persistence of the receptor systems (e.g., how long an image is seen after
.removal of the stimulus)
The question of perceiving sequence hardly has meaning for the senses of taste and
smell. Hearing appears to be particularly adapted to temporal perception, since the
pattern of auditory excitement shows little inertial lag, closely following the physical
duration of successive stimuli. Tactual function can give comparable results, but
.hearing has the practical superiority in everyday experience of reception at a distance
When two heterogeneous stimuli (e.g., a flash and a click) are successively presented,
the critical threshold for passing from perceived simultaneity to an awareness of
succession is found for intervals that vary between 0.02 to 0.1 second, depending on
the training of the subjects. The maximum interval for perceiving sequence is more
difficult to measure. The minimum time intervals are largely determined by the
immediate physiological conditions of direct perceiving, while the maximum intervals
are obscured by the effects of other cognitive activities. Determining when direct
.perception ends and when memory takes over is difficult
At any rate, awareness of unitary sequence ceases for pairs of auditory or visual
stimuli when the interval between them increases to approximately two seconds. For
perceptually organized stimuli (as in a rhythm, a melody, or a phrase) the interval may
.reach five seconds, as indicated by ones ability to reproduce the pattern
Between the upper and lower limits there are optimal values that seem most likely to
produce perception of sequence. In the simple case of two homogeneous stimuli the
optimum interval seems to be about 0.6 to 0.8 second. This is inferred from a series of

clues: the same interval defines the tempo most frequently adopted in spontaneous
motor activity (e.g., tapping, walking) and corresponds to the heart rate. It is the
interval that is most precisely reproduced by subjects in experiments; shorter intervals
tend to be overestimated and longer ones underestimated. Stimuli repeated at that rate
are subjectively judged to proceed most comfortably, without appearing to rush each
other as in faster tempos and with no tendency to be separately perceived as at slower
.frequencies
Perceived duration

Duration, the interval between two successive events, may be distinguished as full or
empty (filled or unfilled) in terms of the sensory stimulation that intervenes. An empty
interval is bounded by two perceptually discrete stimuli (e.g., two clicks in
succession); a duration is full when there is continous stimulation, being delimited by
an onset and cessation (e.g., a light stays on throughout the interval). To experience an
empty duration is to perceive sequence, while full duration corresponds to the
.temporal length of a stimulus
Human subjects need a minimum of about 0.1 second of visual experience or about .
01 to .02 second of auditory experience to perceive duration; any shorter experiences
are called instantaneous. Direct, unitary perception of duration occurs up to a
maximum period of approximately 1.5 to 2 seconds from the beginning to the end of a
.continuous sensory stimulus
This roughly two-second maximum for directly perceived duration seems to have a
biological basis and can be considered the upper temporal limit of some sort of
integrated neural mechanism. The immediate physiological process triggered by a
stimulus endures beyond the period of stimulation, and may be measured as the
duration of electrical impulses (i.e., in the optic nerve) evoked by simple stimulation.
This initial activity appears to be integrated subjectively into a cognitive unit that
embraces the rapidly ensuing perceptual processes as well. The optimum range of 0.6
to 0.8 second noted earlier seems to represent the typical duration of this integrating
mechanism, as inferred from studies of sensory physiology and from reaction-time
.experiments
At any rate, only within these limits can the quality and precision of direct human
perception (as opposed to estimation and recall) of duration be studied. Such
perception can be absolute or relative. Absolute perception corresponds to estimates
expressed in subjectively qualitative terms as long or short. In making such estimates,
people can discriminate four to five different durations between 0.1 and 1.0 second
and six to seven between 0.5 and 5.0 seconds. In studies of relative perception,
subjects attempt to reproduce intervals that are presented, or are told either to produce
durations of specified length or to compare two successively presented durations.
These tasks, especially comparison, give rise to constant time-order errors; that is,
.errors in estimation that depend on which interval is presented first

Experimentally, the perception of empty duration is found to vary with the sense that
marks the limits. With duration constant, interval estimates tend to be greater (1)
when the limits are visual rather than auditory or tactual, (2) when they are of low
intensity, or (3) when auditory limits are higher pitched. If the unfilled limits are
defined by successive stimuli from different places, duration appears longer when the
distance between the two sources is greater; this is called the S effect or kappa effect.
The reverse is the tau effect, in which the distance is perceived as being wider when
.the interval between successive stimuli is longer
The perception of filled duration also varies with the stimulus. Holding the interval
constant, interrupted stimulation (e.g., several successive clicks) appears to last longer
than does a continuous stimulus; and auditory stimuli appear to last longer than visual.
Filled durations seem longer as stimulus intensity (e.g., loudness) or auditory pitch
.rises
One interval can be perceived as longer or shorter than the next when the difference is
about 7 to 10 percent (both full and empty durations). This relative difference
threshold is lowered by practice. Such studies also reveal that apparent duration
.remains proportional to the objectively measured length of the interval
Estimating duration

When an interval lasts more than a few seconds, it no longer is directly perceivable as
a whole, but its length can be estimated on the basis of memory function. Since
common experience shows how imprecise these estimates are, people generally
calculate time from such indicators as the position of the sun or with clocks and
.watches. Duration then is inferred rather than perceived
Estimates, however, often are made, including those of absolute duration in which an
activity is appreciated as brief or prolonged. Lacking a watch, one may make crude
estimates based on such quantitative aspects of activity as distance travelled, number
of dishes washed, or number of pages read. Or one may estimate directly as in
.subjectively counting seconds
:Several important factors influence the subjects estimation of time
Type of activity

The more often a task is broken up or interrupted, the longer it seems to take. As a
corollary, a period of doing nothing appears longer than an equally long period when
one is doing something. Similarly, relatively passive activities appear longer than do
those requiring active participation; e.g., time passes faster for the student who is
.taking notes than for one who passively listens
Level of motivation

The more one is motivated by a given task, the shorter it appears to last. Clearly,
motivation and the type of activity pursued are interdependent factors. Lack of
motivation tends to interrupt attention to a task; a task in which perceptual focus
frequently shifts rarely corresponds to one for which there is strong motivation. The
more one notices change during an interval, the longer it is judged to be. More
generally, it may be said that time has subjective duration only when one notices it;
e.g., in awaiting the arrival of a friend (as opposed to the actual meeting) or in hoping
.to finish a task (in contrast to working at it)
Personality traits

Although inadequacies in quantifying personality traits and difficulties in studying

estimates of time spans exceeding a few seconds have hampered scientific study,
simple observation reveals marked individual differences in the ability to estimate
time. Sex differences have not been reliably established, but the influence of age is
well known. Experimental data indicate that children use the same criteria as do
adults, but give more variable estimates of duration. One reason for this seems to be
that they are less able to compensate for differences in the nature of a task or in
personal motivation; also they are inexperienced in making inferences based on the
volume of work they have accomplished. Elderly people tend to find time shorter,
.probably since they are likely to notice long-accustomed changes less frequently
Children are as accurate as adults in reproducing various series of metronome clicks
that last about two seconds or less. But estimates of longer intervals require processes
for organizing experience that develop only with age, and very young children seem
to depend only on limited criteria: It lasts because its longer; because theres more
of it; because it goes faster. According to Jean Piaget, estimates based on more or
less explicit comparison with standard units of duration imply concrete cognitive
operations that are developed only after about the age of seven or eight. Adolescents
typically construct more sophisticated notions of time abstracted from such concrete
.experimental data
Physiological effects: drugs

The precision with which time is perceived has not been found to be related to heart
rate or to electroencephalographic data. It has been shown, however, that perception
of time as in clapping or counting accelerates or decelerates with the rise and fall of
body temperature. The precise metabolic basis for such temperature effects awaits
.further study
Ethical considerations sharply limit the dosage level of drugs employed for
experiments on human beings. Understanding of the interactions between drug effects
and personality traits in studies of time estimation is, therefore, quite incomplete.
Within the dosage ranges investigated, however, stimulating drugs (e.g., thyroxine,
caffeine, amphetamines) produce overestimates of duration, while depressants and

anesthetics (e.g., barbiturates, nitrous oxide) promote underestimates. Under the

influence of hallucinogens (e.g., marijuana, mescaline, LSD), subjects tend to
estimate absolute duration as very long. In addition, a marijuana user may
.underestimate the speed of a motor vehicle, increasing the chances of accident
Sensory deprivation and hypnosis

Relatively complete sensory deprivation (such as may be experienced, for example,

by persons undergoing prolonged stays in experimental isolation chambers)
compresses the experience of time to the point that short or long intervals (from about
a minute to a day) seem to pass about twice as fast as usual. Time spent under these
unpleasant conditions paradoxically seems shorter than normal time. Thus, the 58
.objective days of a subjects first stay in a cave were underestimated as 33 days
Under hypnosis, durations ordinarily are estimated at least as precisely as ever. Time
distortion, however, can be readily induced among hypnotized subjects by simple
suggestion. Such a subject, for example, may be exposed to two clicks that delimit an
objective, 10-second interval but be told that it lasts 10 minutes. On being asked to
count objects for 10 minutes, he may report having counted several hundreds without
.difficulty over what the experimenters stopwatch shows to have been 10 seconds
Paul FraisseThe Editors of Encyclopdia Britannica

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Time perception

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Bibliography
Paul Fraisse, The Psychology of Time (1963, reprinted 1975; originally published in
French, 1957), provides a broad synthesis of the psychological works on time, while
Jon E. Roeckelein, The Concept of Time in Psychology: A Resource Book and
Annotated Bibliography (2000), presents a chronological overview. J.T. Fraser (ed.),
The Voices of Time: A Cooperative Survey of Mans Views of Time as Expressed by the
Sciences and by the Humanities, 2nd ed. (1981); and Roland Fischer (ed.),
Interdisciplinary Perspectives of Time, Annals of the New York Academy of
Sciences, vol. 138, article 2, pp. 367915 (February 6, 1967), present varied aspects of
the problem of time, ranging from religious to scientific conceptions. Erwin Bnning,
The Physiological Clock: Circadian Rhythms and Biological Chronometry, rev. 3rd
ed. (1973; originally published in German, 1958), discusses problems of the temporal
regulation of organisms. Genetic epistemology is developed by Jean Piaget, The
Childs Conception of Time (1969, reissued 1971; originally published in French,
1946).
Louis Jolyon West The Editors of Encyclopdia Britannica