An Experimental Study on Subjective Time on Tone in Time Perception

Abstract

This study experimentally investigated subjective time from a time perception perspective. Previous experimental psychology studies have indicated the roles of the interstimulus interval, the time error, and the preceding stimulus series in regulating time perception. This study focused on the preceding stimulus series and measured changes in the subjective time of a tone by maintaining the stimuli domain of a series and biasing the stimulus distribution. The results indicated that the measured values were a function of the preceding stimulus duration indicative of perceptual contrast. Moreover, the measured values of an identical stimulus changed according to the series’ stimulus distribution. These tendencies could be anchoring effects caused by preceding stimuli and their distribution. These findings suggest that the subjective time of a specific stimulus changes according to the temporal characteristics of simultaneously presented other stimuli when judging a stimulus. Furthermore, observers’ introspective reports indicated identical results, suggesting the usefulness of observers’ descriptions in examining time perception.