Abstract
The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of spatial attributes of stimuli upon the estimation of duration time. Using magnitude estimation method, three tasks were imposed on seven undergraduate students. C (control) task was to estimate the duration of a static small circle, MF (moving-free) task was that of a moving pattern of randomly located luminous spots, both with free regard, and MX (moving-fixed) task was that of the small circle superimposed on the moving pattern, with focused attention. In the MF task, there was found a velocity effect, i.e. the higher the velocity was, the larger was the estimated duration. In the MX task, the velocity effect was also found but in a small amount. The estimated durations in the C task were larger than those for the lowest velocity conditions in the other two tasks. These results were discussed in terms of two hypothetical cognitive processing systems in prospective time estimation.
