The Experimental Study Of Influences Of Magnitude Updating Directions On Time Perception

Recent researches indicated that the representations of time and numerosity are closely linked. Perceived time distortions can be induced by task-irrelevant numerical information:larger numerosity lead to time overestimation and smaller numerosity leads to time underestimation. Mode Control Model and A Theory of Magnitude proposed that our brain use similar principles of information accumulation to process time and numerosity. However, in term of directionality, the difference between time and numerosity is distinct in that numerosity can change in bi-directions, either accumulation or dissipation, while time can only change in an accumulating way. The purpose of current research is to evaluate the effects of magnitude updating directions on time perception.Participants judged the duration of increasing dots and decreasing dots stimuli (Experiment1), first increasing then decreasing dots and first decreasing then increasing dots stimuli (Experiment2), and static stimuli imbedded in the background of increasing dots and decreasing dots stimuli to test whether the effect of directionality on time perception could extend to spatial dissociable object(experiment3). Our results demonstrated that increasing dots induced a time overestimation, relative to the decreasing dots, and the decreasing-then-increasing dots were judged to last longer than the increasing-then-decreasing dots, and the effect of directionality observed in experiment1could also extend to static object which is spatial dissociate from dynamic updating dots. Taken together, above findings suggest the existence of interfering effect between updating directionality of magnitude and time perception.