Duration sensitivity depends on stimulus familiarity.

Full Abstract

When people are asked to assess or compare the value of experienced or hypothetical events, one of the most intriguing observations is their apparent insensitivity to event duration. The authors propose that duration insensitivity occurs when stimuli are evaluated in isolation because they typically lack comparison information. People should be able to evaluate the duration of stimuli in isolation, however, when stimuli are familiar and evoke comparison information. The results of 3 experiments support the hypothesis. Participants were insensitive to the duration of hypothetical (Experiment 1) and real (Experiment 2) unfamiliar experiences but sensitive to the duration of familiar experiences. In Experiment 3, participants were insensitive to the duration of an unfamiliar noise when it was unlabeled but sensitive to its duration when it was given a familiar label (i.e., a telephone ring). Rather than being a unique phenomenon, duration neglect (and perhaps other forms of scope insensitivity) appears to be a particular case of insensitivity to unfamiliar attributes. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Author information

Author/s: Morewedge, Carey K (CK); Kassam, Karim S (KS); Hsee, Christopher K (CK); Caruso, Eugene M (EM);

Affiliation: Department of Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. morewedge(-atsign-)cmu.edu

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. General (J Exp Psychol Gen), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-May; vol 138 (issue 2) : pp 177-86

Dates: Created 2009/04/28; Completed 2009/06/26;

PMID: 19397378, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 6/26/2009, IMS Date: 26 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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