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Perception of Sequence and Duration

The psychological present

To perceive is to become aware of stimulation. Awareness of sequence or duration may, at first glance, seem inconsistent with the definition of perceiving. In a mathematical sense, certainly, the present is only a point along the continuum of becoming, an instant when future is transformed into past. Nevertheless, there is indeed a more prolonged psychological present, a brief period during which successive events seem to form a perceptual unity and can be apprehended without calling on memory. There is a perceptual field for time just as there is a visual field. The rate or speed of a sequence determines the limits of the time field.

When a metronome tics two or three times a second, one perceives an integral sequence, becoming aware of a rhythmic auditory series characterized by a perceptually distinct frequency. When the ticks come less often, however—at intervals of three seconds, say—the frequency or sequence no longer is perceived. Each physically discrete sound impulse remains an isolated perceptual event; each tick is no longer perceived as belonging to the same temporal field as the one that follows. Similar effects can be achieved by playing a recording of music or speech at a very slow rate. Music or spoken sentences are recognizable only when their elements (melody, rhythmic patterns, phrase) are presented at an optimal speed that permits significant perceptual unity; that is, only when they belong to the relative simultaneity of the psychological present.

The perceived field of time also depends on the number of stimulus elements presented. When a clock strikes three or four times, one knows without counting that it is three or four o'clock. At noon one must count; the first chimes no longer belong to the psychological present that includes the last. Most people also can repeat a series of letters or numbers they hear, so long as there are no more than seven or eight elements. This ability varies with the degree of perceptual (e.g., semantic) organization among the elements. While most adults can apprehend only about eight letters, they can grasp and repeat without fault sentences of 20 to 25 syllables.

Perception of sequence

A series of physically discrete stimuli that impinge too rapidly on a sensory structure (e.g., flashes of light on the retina) may produce perceptual fusion; the flashes will be indiscriminable and will appear to be uninterrupted light. The experience of fusion yields to one of discontinuity over distinctive critical ranges of frequency for some of the senses: visual flicker appears under prescribed experimental conditions at about 60 flashes per second, auditory flutter at about 1,000 interruptions per second, and tactual vibration at about 4,000 pulses per second. These values depend on differences in the persistence of the receptor systems (e.g., how long an image is seen after removal of the stimulus).

The question of perceiving sequence hardly has meaning for the senses of taste and smell. Hearing appears to be particularly adapted to temporal perception, since the pattern of auditory excitement shows little inertial lag, closely following the physical duration of successive stimuli. Tactual function can give comparable results, but hearing has the practical superiority in everyday experience of reception at a distance.

When two heterogeneous stimuli (e.g., a flash and a click) are successively presented, the critical threshold for passing from perceived simultaneity to an awareness of succession is found for intervals that vary between 0.02 to 0.1 second, depending on the training of the subjects. The maximum interval for perceiving sequence is more difficult to measure. The minimum time intervals are largely determined by the immediate physiological conditions of direct perceiving, while the maximum intervals are obscured by the effects of other cognitive activities. Determining when direct perception ends and when memory takes over is difficult.

At any rate, awareness of unitary sequence ceases for pairs of auditory or visual stimuli when the interval between them increases to approximately two seconds. For perceptually organized stimuli (as in a rhythm, a melody, or a phrase) the interval may reach five seconds, as indicated by one's ability to reproduce the pattern.

Between the upper and lower limits there are optimal values that seem most likely to produce perception of sequence. In the simple case of two homogeneous stimuli the optimum interval seems to be about 0.6 to 0.8 second. This is inferred from a series of clues: the same interval defines the tempo most frequently adopted in spontaneous motor activity (e.g., tapping, walking) and corresponds to the heart rate. It is the interval that is most precisely reproduced by subjects in experiments; shorter intervals tend to be overestimated and longer ones underestimated. Stimuli repeated at that rate are subjectively judged to proceed most comfortably, without appearing to rush each other as in faster tempos and with no tendency to be separately perceived as at slower frequencies.

Perceived duration

Duration, the interval between two successive events, may be distinguished as full or empty (filled or unfilled) in terms of the sensory stimulation that intervenes. An empty interval is bounded by two perceptually discrete stimuli (e.g., two clicks in succession); a duration is full when there is continuous stimulation, being delimited by an onset and cessation (e.g., a light stays on throughout the interval). To experience an empty duration is to perceive sequence, while full duration corresponds to the temporal length of a stimulus.

Human subjects need a minimum of about 0.1 second of visual experience or about .01 to .02 second of auditory experience to perceive duration; any shorter experiences are called instantaneous. Direct, unitary perception of duration occurs up to a maximum period of approximately 1.5 to 2 seconds from the beginning to the end of a continuous sensory stimulus.

This roughly two-second maximum for directly perceived duration seems to have a biological basis and can be considered the upper temporal limit of some sort of integrated neural mechanism. The immediate physiological process triggered by a stimulus endures beyond the period of stimulation, and may be measured as the duration of electrical impulses (i.e., in the optic nerve) evoked by simple stimulation. This initial activity appears to be integrated subjectively into a cognitive unit that embraces the rapidly ensuing perceptual processes as well. The optimum range of 0.6 to 0.8 second noted earlier seems to represent the typical duration of this integrating mechanism, as inferred from studies of sensory physiology and from reaction-time experiments.

At any rate, only within these limits can the quality and precision of direct human perception (as opposed to estimation and recall) of duration be studied. Such perception can be absolute or relative. Absolute perception corresponds to estimates expressed in subjectively qualitative terms as long or short. In making such estimates, people can discriminate four to five different durations between 0.1 and 1.0 second and six to seven between 0.5 and 5.0 seconds. In studies of relative perception, subjects attempt to reproduce intervals that are presented, or are told either to produce durations of specified length or to compare two successively presented durations. These tasks, especially comparison, give rise to constant time-order errors; that is, errors in estimation that depend on which interval is presented first.

Experimentally, the perception of empty duration is found to vary with the sense that marks the limits. With duration constant, interval estimates tend to be greater (1) when the limits are visual rather than auditory or tactual, (2) when they are of low intensity, or (3) when auditory limits are higher pitched. If the unfilled limits are defined by successive stimuli from different places, duration appears longer when the distance between the two sources is greater; this is called the S effect or kappa effect. The reverse is the tau effect, in which the distance is perceived as being wider when the interval between successive stimuli is longer.

The perception of filled duration also varies with the stimulus. Holding the interval constant, interrupted stimulation (e.g., several successive clicks) appears to last longer than does a continuous stimulus; and auditory stimuli appear to last longer than visual. Filled durations seem longer as stimulus intensity (e.g., loudness) or auditory pitch rises.

One interval can be perceived as longer or shorter than the next when the difference is about 7 to 10 percent (both full and empty durations). This relative difference threshold is lowered by practice. Such studies also reveal that apparent duration remains proportional to the objectively measured length of the interval.

Estimating duration

When an interval lasts more than a few seconds, it no longer is directly perceivable as a whole, but its length can be estimated on the basis of memory function. Since common experience shows how imprecise these estimates are, people generally calculate time from such indicators as the position of the sun or with clocks and watches. Duration then is inferred rather than perceived.

Estimates, however, often are made, including those of absolute duration in which an activity is appreciated as brief or prolonged. Lacking a watch, one may make crude estimates based on such quantitative aspects of activity as distance travelled, number of dishes washed, or number of pages read. Or one may estimate directly as in subjectively counting seconds.

Several important factors influence the subjects estimation of time:

Type of activity

The more often a task is broken up or interrupted, the longer it seems to take. As a corollary, a period of doing nothing appears longer than an equally long period when one is doing something. Similarly, relatively passive activities appear longer than do those requiring active participation; e.g., time passes faster for the student who is taking notes than for one who passively listens.

Level of motivation

The more one is motivated by a given task, the shorter it appears to last. Clearly, motivation and the type of activity pursued are interdependent factors. Lack of motivation tends to interrupt attention to a task; a task in which perceptual focus frequently shifts rarely corresponds to one for which there is strong motivation. The more one notices change during an interval, the longer it is judged to be. More generally, it may be said that time has subjective duration only when one notices it; e.g., in awaiting the arrival of a friend (as opposed to the actual meeting) or in hoping to finish a task (in contrast to working at it).

Personality traits

Although inadequacies in quantifying personality traits and difficulties in studying estimates of time spans exceeding a few seconds have hampered scientific study, simple observation reveals marked individual differences in the ability to estimate time. Sex differences have not been reliably established, but the influence of age is well known. Experimental data indicate that children use the same criteria as do adults, but give more variable estimates of duration. One reason for this seems to be that they are less able to compensate for differences in the nature of a task or in personal motivation; also they are inexperienced in making inferences based on the volume of work they have accomplished. Elderly people tend to find time shorter, probably since they are likely to notice long-accustomed changes less frequently.

Children are as accurate as adults in reproducing various series of metronome clicks that last about two seconds or less. But estimates of longer intervals require processes for organizing experience that develop only with age, and very young children seem to depend only on limited criteria: “It lasts because it's longer; because there's more of it; because it goes faster.” According to Jean Piaget, estimates based on more or less explicit comparison with standard units of duration imply concrete cognitive operations that are developed only after about the age of seven or eight. Adolescents typically construct more sophisticated notions of time abstracted from such concrete experimental data.

Physiological effects: drugs

The precision with which time is perceived has not been found to be related to heart rate or to electroencephalographic data. It has been shown, however, that perception of time as in clapping or counting accelerates or decelerates with the rise and fall of body temperature. The precise metabolic basis for such temperature effects awaits further study.

Ethical considerations sharply limit the dosage level of drugs employed for experiments on human beings. Understanding of the interactions between drug effects and personality traits in studies of time estimation is, therefore, quite incomplete. Within the dosage ranges investigated, however, stimulating drugs (e.g., thyroxine, caffeine, amphetamines) produce overestimates of duration, while depressants and anesthetics (e.g., barbiturates, nitrous oxide) promote underestimates. Under the influence of hallucinogens (e.g., marijuana, mescaline, LSD), subjects tend to estimate absolute duration as very long. In addition, a marijuana user may underestimate the speed of a motor vehicle, increasing the chances of accident.

Sensory deprivation and hypnosis

Relatively complete sensory deprivation (such as may be experienced, for example, by persons undergoing prolonged stays in experimental isolation chambers) compresses the experience of time to the point that short or long intervals (from about a minute to a day) seem to pass about twice as fast as usual. Time spent under these unpleasant conditions paradoxically seems shorter than normal time. Thus, the 58 objective days of a subject's first stay in a cave were underestimated as 33 days.

Under hypnosis, durations ordinarily are estimated at least as precisely as ever. Time distortion, however, can be readily induced among hypnotized subjects by simple suggestion. Such a subject, for example, may be exposed to two clicks that delimit an objective, 10-second interval but be told that it lasts 10 minutes. On being asked to count objects for 10 minutes, he may report having counted several hundreds without difficulty over what the experimenter's stopwatch shows to have been 10 seconds.