The ERP Study On The Effect Of Different Types Of Sound On Time Perception

The way of estimating time has always been the center of the time psychology. In the series of researches on the time perception, two opposite models have always been existed; they are cognition model and internal clock model. Both of the models have been proved functional in a large amount of researches, however, they both also have their own defects. At the present stage, the studies of single-stage on time perception has already relative researches about how the stimulation from some other sensory channels can affect time perception are still been very consummate.However, the rare, especially the ones about auditory channel.This research applies the experimental paradigm of judging the time duration prospectively and absolutely, trying to research the variety of individual time perception through studying the differences of stimulations from the auditory channel. Due to the uniqueness of time information processes, plus having the high resolution characteristic, the event-related potential (ERP) technology can be better used by this research. ERP can not only indicate the time process related to the brain activities through cognitive process, but also explore the characteristics of neural activity model under different experimental conditions. Therefore, in this research, ERP technology is used to study how variable sound can affect the individual time perception.Experiment designl:Firstly, a 300ms point of fixation showed in the center of the screen; then, a random black screen appeared; Followed by that came with the auditory stimulus which lasted till the action of the tested key. The task was that once the time reached 600ms, the key was pressed immediately. According to the analysis of the statistics of the experiment, I found out that the reaction to the stimulation from low-frequency sound is significantly more active than to the one from high-frequency sound. This means that under the condition of "high frequency", the estimation of time duration is comparatively longer, which leads a quicker reaction of pressing the key. On the contrary, under the condition of "low frequency", the estimation of time duration is shorter, which leads a slower reaction of pressing the key. According to the statistical analysis of the computer, both "high frequency" and "low frequency" caused the same element of N1 to happen in the experiment. Subsequently, once the stimulation reached 200ms roughly, "high frequency" and "low frequency" both displayed a significant negative variation wave. The variation of "high frequency" is much bigger than the one of "low frequency". The reason it happened perhaps is that the CNV from the procedure of the time perception is relevant to the mental load of individuals.Experiment design 2:Firstly, a 300ms point of fixation showed in the center of the screen; then, a random black screen appeared; Followed by that came with the auditory stimulus which lasted till the action of the tested key. The task was that once the time reached 600ms, the key was pressed immediately. According to the analysis of the statistics of the experiment, I found out that the reaction to the stimulation from low-frequency sound is significantly more active than to the one from high-frequency sound. This result was exactly the same as the result from Experiment 1. This result indicates that the result from Experiment 1 was reliable. On the factor of rhythm, the test of the stimulation action to "low rhythm" was significantly longer than the one to "fast rhythm". The result indicates that under the condition of "low rhythm", the estimation of time duration is comparatively shorter, In addition to that, the reaction to it is also shorter. According to the statistical analysis of the computer, both of the two frequencies and both of the rhythms caused the same element of N1 to happen. I also found out that once the stimulation reached 200ms roughly, "high frequency" and "low frequency" both displayed a significant negative variation wave. The reason it happened perhaps is that the CNV from the procedure of the time perception is relevant to the mental load of individuals. The variation of "high frequency" is much bigger than the one of "low frequency" towards negative; "fast rhythm" and "slow rhythm" are similar to the little differences in CNV slow negative wave during the process of time perception.The result of the research is that the sound stimulations of variable frequencies and rhythms from auditory channel can affect individual's time perception. It can be explained by the model of time-cognition theory----the allocation of resources decides the time duration of time perception. Even if the experiment was made under different conditions, the same result occurred once it reached 200ms. The same result was a negative wave similar to CNV was caused to happen. The negative wave reflects the process of time perception, and it is relevant to individual's mental load.