engleski

The effect on nonemporal stimulus magnitude on duration estimations for three types of visual stimuli

Based on observed similarities between the domains of time, space and numbers and indications about the existence of a common processing mechanism for those domains, a theory of magnitude (ATOM) was proposed. The main proposal of that theory is that both countable and uncountable quantities can be represented as mental magnitudes. ATOM theory predicts that larger nontemporal stimuli are going to be judged to last longer then smaller nontemporal stimuli of equal duration. Based on these assumptions the main goal of this study was to confirm the existence of the positive effect of nontemporal stimulus magnitude on duration estimations with different types of nontemporal stimuli and different interval durations. Additionally, another goal was to determine whether the studied effect is stable in time. For this purpose, an experiment, in which a group of 44 participants (29 female and 15 male) had a task to estimate duration of target intervals using a reproduction method, was conducted. Target intervals consisted of three types of nontemporal stimuli (numbers, square geometric shape, or group of dots) each of which was presented in two magnitudes (small and large) and in three different durations (800, 1000 and 1200 ms). Each participant performed the task twice with sessions a week apart from one another. The results revealed that larger magnitude of stimuli has been estimated as longer in almost all experimental situations. Obtained differences were not statistically significant for geometric shapes and numbers, but were significant for the number of dots. Effect sizes were moderate. The observed pattern of results was similar in the first and the second session for each of three time intervals. ATOM theory provides the best explanations of the results obtained for the number of dots, and the weakest for the numbers.

time estimation; stimulus duration; type of stimuli; ATOM theory

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