Factors Influencing Distortion of Subjective Temporal Duration in Flow Experience during Game Play

Abstract

We examined the relationship between the 10 factors of the Flow-Experience-Checklist (Ishimura, 2014) and the 12 factors of feeling state with regard to the difference between the perceived and actual duration during the execution of a typing game. Twenty participants typed each sentence as quickly but accurately as possible, and answered the duration required at the end of each trial. Flow was experienced in more than half of the trials. Of the trials in which flow was experienced, more than 60% of the underestimation of duration was explained by concentration, goal orientation, and sense of control, and more than 80% of the overestimation of duration was explained by concentration and vigorous feeling. These results suggest that extreme concentration is involved in generating the flow experience, and that goal orientation, sense of control, and vigorous feeling are involved in determining the direction of the duration-length illusion.