The Effects Of Paradigms And Methods On Duration Estimation Under Pain Condition

Both duration timing and pain have great significance for human beings' survival. Duration estimation is influenced by many factors. According to most researchers, experimental paradigms and methods are two of most important ones. There are clinical and experimental proofs to show that temporal cognition is changed under pain condition, however, all these researches adopted retrospective paradigm and verbal report method. Systematic research on the effects of paradigms and methods under pain condition has not been done. Using the Cold Pressor Task(CPT), the present research systematically investigated the effects of paradigms(retrospective and prospective) and methods(verbal report and duplication) on duration estimation on healthy, university students. The whole research consists of two experiments, in which the temperature of water and the pain endurance target are manipulated.According to results obtained under present experimental conditions, the following conclusions can be made:(1) Using CPT and duration of 12 seconds, significant paradigm effects exist under both pain (3℃) and no pain (31℃) condition, with prospective judgments longer than retrospective judgments. Method effects are insignificant between verbal report method and duplication method.(2) Using CPT and duration of 12 seconds, duration judgments are significantly shorter under pain (3℃) condition than no pain (3℃) condition.(3) Using CPT (3℃) and duration of 12 seconds, significant paradigm effects exist with clear endurance target (3 minutes) or no clear endurance target, with prospective judgments longer than retrospective judgments. Method effects are insignificant between verbal report method and duplication method.(4) Using CPT (3℃) and duration of 12 seconds, duration judgments are significantly longer with clear endurance target (3 minutes) than no clear endurance target.(5) Using CPT (3℃) and duration of 12 seconds, with clear endurance target (3 minutes), pain ratings on VAS are significantly smaller, and pain endurance are significantly longer.