Subjective time dilation: spatially local, object-based, or a global visual experience?

Full Abstract

Time can appear to slow down in certain brief real-life events-e.g. during car accidents or critical moments of athletes' performances. Such time dilation can also be produced to a smaller degree in the laboratory by 'oddballs' presented in series of otherwise identical stimuli. We explored the spatial distribution of subjective time dilation: Does time expand only for the oddball objects themselves, only for the local spatial region including the oddball, or for the entire visual field? Because real-life traumatic events provoke an apparently global visual experience of time expansion, we predicted-and observed-that a locally discrete oddball would also dilate the apparent duration of other concurrent events in other parts of the visual field. This 'dilation at a distance' was not diminished by increasing spatial separation between the oddball and target events, and was not influenced by manipulations of objecthood that drive object-based attention. In addition, behaviorally 'urgent' oddballs (looming objects) yielded time dilation, but visually similar receding objects did not. We interpret these results in terms of the influence of attention on time perception-where attention reflects general arousal and faster internal pacing rather than spatial or object-based selection, per se. As a result, attention influences subjective time dilation as a global visual experience.

Author information

Author/s: New, Joshua J (JJ); Scholl, Brian J (BJ);

Affiliation: Perception and Cognition Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8205, USA. joshua.new(-atsign-)yale.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of vision (J Vis), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-; vol 9 (issue 2) : pp 4.1-11

Dates: Created 2009/03/10; Completed 2009/06/25;

PMID: 19271914, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/25/2009, IMS Date: 25 Jun 2009 00:00:00)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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