Perceived duration decreases with increasing eccentricity

• Published in: Acta psychologica Vol. 150; pp. 136 - 145
• Main Authors: Kliegl, Katrin M., Huckauf, Anke
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kidlington Elsevier B.V 01.07.2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Activity levels. Psychomotricity; Adolescent; Adult; Attention - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition. Intelligence; Duration estimation; Eccentricity; Female; Fovea Centralis - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Judgment - physiology; Male; Perception; Photic Stimulation - methods; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reminder paradigm; Spatial attention; Spatial perception. Time perception; Time perception; Time Perception - physiology; Vigilance. Attention. Sleep; Vision; Visual periphery; Young Adult; 2346; Eccentricity; 2323; Duration estimation; 2300; Spatial attention; Visual periphery; 2340; Time perception; Reminder paradigm; Human; Peripheral vision; Cognition; Space perception; Experimental study; Stimulus duration; Perception; Visual attention
• ISSN: 0001-6918; 1873-6297; 1873-6297
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2014.05.007

Previous studies examining the influence of stimulus location on temporal perception yield inhomogeneous and contradicting results. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to soundly examine the effect of stimulus eccentricity. In a series of five experiments, subjects compared the duration of foveal disks to disks presented at different retinal eccentricities on the horizontal meridian. The results show that the perceived duration of a visual stimulus declines with increasing eccentricity. The effect was replicated with various stimulus orders (Experiments 1–3), as well as with cortically magnified stimuli (Experiments 4–5), ruling out that the effect was merely caused by different cortical representation sizes. The apparent decreasing duration of stimuli with increasing eccentricity is discussed with respect to current models of time perception, the possible influence of visual attention and respective underlying physiological characteristics of the visual system. •Our aim was to examine the effect of stimulus eccentricity on duration perception.•Subjects compared the duration of disks presented foveally and in the periphery.•Results show that perceived duration declines with growing stimulus eccentricity.•The effect was replicated with various stimulus orders and with scaled stimuli.