Context effects and selective response lengthening in a temporal serial reproduction task

Repeatedly performing a temporal reproduction task has been reported to increase reproduced durations. We report the novel finding that the second reproduction in a series is selectively enhanced relative to the first. This was true regardless of whether the responses were discrete (separate start and stop responses) or contiguous (stop response is the start of the next response). In a final experiment we test the hypothesis that the second reproduction is more influenced by the central tendency of previously experienced durations than is the first. These results are discussed in terms of two sources of performance uncertainty: temporal remoteness of the second and subsequent reproductions from the standard and trial-by-trial unpredictability of the standard in random but not blocked designs.     

大学新生时间管理倾向、手机依赖与无聊倾向的关系：一项交叉滞后研究

在3个月的时间内对425名大学新生进行3次追踪测量，以考察时间管理倾向、手机依赖与无聊倾向之间的因果顺序和发展变化趋势。结果发现：（1）大学新生的无聊倾向与时间管理倾向呈同时性和继时性的负相关，并与手机依赖水平呈同时性和继时性的正相关。（2）T1和T2的无聊倾向分别正向预测T2和T3的手机依赖，并分别负向预测T2和T3的时间管理倾向；T1的时间管理倾向负向预测T2的无聊倾向；T2的手机依赖正向预测T3的无聊倾向。结论：无聊倾向分别与手机依赖、时间管理倾向之间存在相互预测关系。     

Temporal perception in closed-skill sports: An experimental study on expert swimmers and runners

The cognitive benefits of closed-skill sports practice have so far been scantily investigated. Here, we thus focused on the potential impact of swimming and running - two sports that highly rely on a precise control of timing - on time processing. To investigate the impact of these closed-skill sports on time perception and estimation, three groups of participants (for a total of eighty-four young adults) took part in the present study: expert swimmers, expert runners, and non-athletes. The ability to process temporal information in the milliseconds and seconds range was assessed through a time reproduction and a finger-tapping tasks, while a motor imagery paradigm was adopted to assess temporal estimation of sport performance in a wider interval range. We also employed the Vividness of Movement Imagery Questionnaire to assess the individual's ability of motor imagery. Results showed that closed-skill sports, specifically time-related disciplines, enhance motor imagery and time perception abilities. Swimmers were more accurate and consistent in perceiving time when compared to runners, probably thanks to the sensory muffled environment that leads these athletes to be more focused on the perception of their internal rhythm.     

Time and Singular Causation—A Computational Model

Causal queries about singular cases, which inquire whether specific events were causally connected, are prevalent in daily life and important in professional disciplines such as the law, medicine, or engineering. Because causal links cannot be directly observed, singular causation judgments require an assessment of whether a co-occurrence of two events c and e was causal or simply coincidental. How can this decision be made? Building on previous work by Cheng and Novick (2005) and Stephan and Waldmann (2018), we propose a computational model that combines information about the causal strengths of the potential causes with information about their temporal relations to derive answers to singular causation queries. The relative causal strengths of the potential cause factors are relevant because weak causes are more likely to fail to generate effects than strong causes. But even a strong cause factor does not necessarily need to be causal in a singular case because it could have been preempted by an alternative cause. We here show how information about causal strength and about two different temporal parameters, the potential causes' onset times and their causal latencies, can be formalized and integrated into a computational account of singular causation. Four experiments are presented in which we tested the validity of the model. The results showed that people integrate the different types of information as predicted by the new model.     

青少年时间管理倾向量表的编制

时间管理倾向是个体在运用时间方式上所表现出来的心理和行为特征,具有多维度多层次的心理结构。参照有关文献并结合国内的广泛调查研究,编制出我国青少年时间管理倾向量表。通过对1027名大中学生的探索性因素分析和507名大中学生的验证性因素分析,结果表明时间管理倾向问卷由时间价值感(社会取向和个人取向的时间价值感)、时间监控观(设置目标、计划、优先级、时间分配和反馈性)和时间效能感(时间管理效能和时间管理行为效能)三个维度构成。该量表的因素结构清晰,信度和效度较好,可以作为评鉴青少年时间管理倾向的有效工具。     

Passage,Becoming and the Nature of Temporal Reality

I first distinguish several notions that have traditionally been conflated (or otherwise neglected) in discussions of the metaphysics of time. Thus, for example, I distinguish between the passage of time and temporal becoming. The former is, I maintain, a confused notion that does not represent a feature of the world; whereas a proper understanding of the latter provides the key for a plausible and comprehensive account of the nature of temporal reality. There are two general classes of views of the nature of temporal reality; proponents of particular views in both classes attempt to account for the phenomenon of temporal becoming in terms of qualitative change. I argue that any such account – in terms of change – is irredeemably problematic. And so I propound a different account of temporal becoming, based on the notion that temporal reality is transient, which provides the means to characterize intuitively and vividly the significant effects of time on the metaphysical nature of the world.

Procrastination: Different time orientations reflect different motives

Because procrastination concerns a person’s ability to meet deadlines, temporal dimension is clearly important to this personality construct. In the present study, the characteristic profile of arousal and avoidant motives of procrastinators were related to past, present, and future time conceptions. Participants (140 women, 135 men; mean age = 49.4, SD = 5.55) completed measures of arousal and avoidance procrastination, and time orientation. Results indicated that avoidant procrastination was associated negatively with present-fatalistic time orientation, and arousal procrastination was associated positively with present-hedonist and negatively with future time orientations. The variance accounted for by time orientations was modest, yet provides further evidence that there are distinct motives for chronic procrastination.     

How time flies: a study of novice skydivers

Although time distortion is commonly reported during a traumatic experience, there is little research addressing the phenomenon. This study investigated the role of affect in time perception in a very stressful experience by indexing novice tandem skydivers' (N=76) levels of fear and excitement before the skydive and soon after landing. Estimations of how long skydivers thought their experience lasted were obtained after landing. Whereas increased fear was associated with the perception of time passing slowly, increased excitement was associated with the perception of time passing quickly. These data support models of time perception based on avoidance and approach motivations influencing time distortion.     

Time monitoring and executive functioning in children and adults

This study examined time-based prospective memory performance in relation to individual and developmental differences in executive functioning. School-age children and young adults completed six experimental tasks that tapped three basic components of executive functioning: inhibition, updating, and mental shifting. Monitoring performance was examined in a time-based prospective memory task in which participants indicated the passing of time every 5min while watching a movie. Separate analyses of the executive functioning data yielded a two-factor solution for both age groups, with the updating and inhibition tasks constituting a common factor and the shifting tasks constituting a separate factor. Both children and adults showed accelerating monitoring functions with low rates of clock checking during the early phase of each 5-min interval. However, compared with adults, children needed more clock checks for obtaining the same level of response accuracy. Executive functioning had selective effects on time-based prospective memory performance. In both children and adults, monitoring performance was related to the inhibition and updating components, but not to the shifting component, of executive functioning. We conclude that difficulties in temporary maintenance and updating of working memory contents may create discontinuities in sense of time, leading to an increased reliance on external cues for time keeping.     

Short-term memory for time in children and adults: A behavioral study and a model

This experiment investigated the effect of the short-term retention of duration on temporal discrimination in 5- and 8-year-olds, as well as in adults, by using an episodic temporal generalization task. In each age group, the participants' task was to compare two successive durations (a standard and a comparison duration) separated by a retention interval of 500ms, 5s, or 10s, with the order of presentation of these two durations being counterbalanced. The results revealed a shortening effect for the first presented stimulus in all of the age groups, although this was greater in the younger children, thereby indicating the presence of a negative time-order error. Furthermore, introducing a retention delay between the two durations did not produce a shortening effect but instead flattened the generalization gradient, especially in the younger children. However, this flattening of the generalization gradient with the retention delay was more marked between 500ms and 5s than between 5s and 10s. Thus, retaining the first duration in short-term memory during a task requiring the comparison of two successive durations reduced temporal discrimination accuracy and did so to a greater extent in the younger children.