The Effect Of Magnitude Information On Time Estimation Under Visual And Auditory Conditions

Walsh (2003) proposed A Theory of Magnitude (ATOM) to explain the relationship among quantity, space and time. It proposes that there is a quantity system in our cognitive system. Quantity, space, time can be part of the system and their represents is one mentality quantity line. A common count action connects them, that is to say time estimation is similar to counting. Time estimation and counting share the same accumulate principle. Quantity, space and time use the same neural processing mechanisms which located in the same cerebral cortex. Countable and uncountable quantity information is represented as the same format-mental quantity. Quantity is not only related with space but also connect with time. Mutual interference between the parts of cognize system may exist.Most of early studies on the relationship between time estimation and number supported number have effect on time estimation, number and time can be in the same system. Large number will cause longer time estimation, small number will cause short time estimation. However, early study also found that time estimation has no effect on quantity estimation. Recently research which adopts audio modality found time estimation is independent with quantity. The aim of my research is to examine The Theory of Magnitude.This paper contains three experiments to discuss ATOM. All of the experiments adopt5×5within-subjects design, Dimension of time includes five level:5s7s9s11s13s, the number of the stimulate includes:1113151719. Each experiment choose30subjects. The age of them range between20to26years old. The1st experiment reproduces the audio modality experiment, the experiment results show that in this situation number has no significant influence on time estimation. This is consistent with early study. The2nd experiment adopt visual modality and the procedure consistent with the audio modality, Aim to explore whether quantity affect time estimation. Experiment results show that under the condition of visual modality number has significant influence on time estimation. In the3rd experiment we explored the reason of difference between1st experiment and2nd experiment. As previous studies have found time estimation with visual modality need more attention resources than audio modality, so3rd experiment reduced the attention resources through changing the character of the stimulus to confirm whether the difference between the1st experiment and the2nd experiment results is caused by the different modality. The result shows that number has no significant influence on time estimation under this condition, which supports the article’s hypothesis. All above-mentioned experimental results don’t support ATOM. In the last part of this thesis author also proposes her own idea about the relationship between quantity and time estimation.