Slowing the Body slows down Time (Perception)
Abstract
Interval timing is a fundamental component of action, and is susceptible to motor-related temporal distortions. Previous studies have shown that concurrent movement biases temporal estimates, but have primarily considered self-modulated movement only. However, real-world encounters often include situations in which movement is restricted or perturbed by environmental factors. In the following experiments, we introduced viscous movement environments to externally modulate movement and investigated the resulting effects on temporal perception. In two separate tasks, participants timed auditory intervals while moving a robotic arm that randomly applied four levels of viscosity. Results demonstrated that higher viscosity led to shorter perceived durations. Using a drift-diffusion model and a Bayesian observer model, we confirmed these biasing effects arose from perceptual mechanisms, instead of biases in decision making. These findings suggest that environmental perturbations are an important factor in movement-related temporal distortions, and enhance the current understanding of the interactions of motor activity and cognitive processes.
Data availability
All source data have been deposited in Dryad. Located at doi:10.25338/B8S913
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Slowing the Body slows down Time (Perception)Dryad Digital Repository, doi:10.25338/B8S913.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
National Science Foundation (1849067)
- Martin Wiener
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Reviewing Editor
- Hugo Merchant, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico
Ethics
Human subjects: Informed consent was obtained from all subjects. All protocols were approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of California, Davis (IRB Protocol # 1336438-6)
Version history
- Received: September 30, 2020
- Accepted: April 7, 2021
- Accepted Manuscript published: April 8, 2021 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: April 16, 2021 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2021, De Kock et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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