Spatial Information Affecting Time Perception: Evidence From Electrophysiological Analysis

Many tasks need the integration of time and space information in daily life.The study of spatiotemporal integration and interference has always been concerned in the field of psychology.One of the classical effects of the spatiotemporal interference is Kappa effect.Kappa effect refers to that individuals’ perception of temporal information between stimuli is affected by spatial information between them,so that their cognition of temporal information has systematic bias.Specifically,when the spatial distance between stimuli increases,the perceived time interval increases.In the research paradigm of Kappa effect,some researchers set up feedback,and they pointed out that feedback would impact time reproduction,but there is no research to prove whether feedback would affect the intensity of Kappa effect.As for the theoretical explanation of Kappa effect,previous researchers proposed a Bayesian model on the logarithmic scale,which assumes that the transformation of physical time into mental time is a logarithmic transformation process,following the Weber-Fechner law.However,current studies are only limited to discussing the relationship between physical time and mental time from the perspective of behavioral data.The electrophysiological evidence of how time perception is affected by spatial and temporal information is still lacking.In experiment 1,we adopted event-related potential(ERP)technology to explore whether the feedback would affect the intensity of Kappa effect.In the experiment,two visual stimuli were presented successively on the computer screen.The time and position of the second stimulus were controlled by the random combination of two standard time intervals(800ms,1200ms)and two standard spatial distances(1°,16°).Participants were asked to remember the standard time interval between stimuli and reproduce it by pressing the SPACE button.Feedback was set up in half of the trials.The behavioral result shows that the replication time increases with the increase of standard time interval and standard space distance,and the replication time with feedback is shorter than that without feedback.Meanwhile,feedback has no significant effect on the intensity of Kappa effect.The ERP result shows that the end of the standard time interval induced significant P2 and P3 components in the parietal lobe,and the amplitude of P2 and P3 components increased with the increase of the standard time interval and the standard spatial distance,but the effect of feedback on the amplitude of P2 and P3 components was not significant.It shows that feedback has no significant effect on Kappa effect,only affecting the length of individual replication time.In experiment 2,we adopted a similar experimental paradigm,on this basis,we canceled feedback and increased the level of stimulus(two standard time intervals: 800 ms,1200ms;seven standard space distances: 0°,1°,2°,4°,8°,16°,25°)to explore whether there is a logarithmic relationship between the representation of time information in the brain and the physical time and space.The behavioral result shows that the replication time increases with the increase of standard time interval and standard space distance.The ERP result shows that the end of the standard time interval induced significant P2 and P3 components in the parietal lobe.The amplitude of the P3 component increased linearly with the increase of the logarithmic transformation of the standard time interval and the standard spatial distance.This indicates that in the Kappa effect,a physical time interval is converted into mental time in logarithmic form,and the representation of time information in the brain also conforms to the logarithmic relationship with the physical time interval,following the Weber-Fechner law.The hypothesis of the logarithmic scale constant velocity model is verified in this experiment.In conclusion,this study used the technology of event-related potential,explores the cognitive neural mechanisms of Kappa effect.Results show that the feedback does not affect the strength of Kappa effect and there is a logarithmic relationship between the representation of time information and physical time and space,in line with the WeberFechner law,It provides electrophysiological evidence for the processing of magnitude information on a logarithmic scale.The results are helpful to further understand the cognitive neural mechanism of spatiotemporal interference,and can promote the research of other cross-dimensional interference fields.A deeper understanding of the cognitive neural mechanism of spatiotemporal interference is conducive to helping people carry out daily activities and predict behaviors more accurately in daily life.