Effects of sensory modality and retention delay on time reproduction performance

抄録

Recent studies have proposed that there exist components of memory specific to each sensory modality for time perception. Moreover, several studies have suggested that memory for duration is more efficient and robust for visual stimuli than auditory stimuli, while a majority of studies reported auditory dominance over vision for temporal perception. The present study, using a time reproduction task with auditory, visual, and audio-visual stimuli, tested memory components by manipulating retention delays between the end of the target presentation and the beginning of reproduction. If vision dominates sensory specific memory for duration, performance with visual stimuli should be more accurate and stable under longer delays than performance in other modality conditions. Results showed that reproduced durations were longer and more unstable under longer delays than shorter delays in all modalities. Moreover, we found that auditory stimuli were reproduced more stably and for longer than visual stimuli. These findings did not support the existence of sense-modality specific memory components or visual dominance.