Time estimation and attentional perspective

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate whether the filled interval effect is influenced by different attentional perspectives of the same event. Musically sophisticated listeners were asked to compare the duration of paired melodies that varied both in lower order contour changes and the relative timing of higher order phrase periodicities. Results indicated that a given pair of melodies could produce over- or underestimations, depending on which hierarchical level of structure was selectively tracked. These findings are discussed in terms of a framework that links event coherence and dynamic attending modes to time-estimation activities.