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Paper   IPM / Cognitive Sciences / 8710
School of Cognitive Sciences
  Title:   Effect of tactile stimulus frequency on time perception: the role of working memory
  Author(s): 
1.  M.A. Khoshnoodi
2.  R. Motiei-langroudi
3.  M. omrani
4.  Mathew E.. Diamond
5.  A.. Abbasian
  Status:   Published
  Journal: Experimental Brain Research
  Vol.:  185
  Year:  2007
  Pages:   623-633
  Supported by:  IPM
  Abstract:
In most models of interval timing, there is a central clock, which is considered to be highly protected from the effects of external stimuli. However, many studies have reported such effects and different theories are proposed to explain the observations. These include the effect of arousal, attention sharing, memory load and information processing on central clock as well as change in the speed of the pacemaker. In this study, we used regular vibro-tactile stimuli with different frequencies in a "duration reproduction task" to investigate the effect of stimulus content on interval timing. Results showed that subjects overestimated the duration as a function of test stimulus frequency. A significant correlation between increasing the test frequency and overestimation of subjective time was observed. We further investigated the effect of blank and filled gaps with various durations on time estimation. Analysis revealed that regardless of gap duration, subjective time increased in the filled gap condition, compared to the blank gap. This effect was independent from contextual stimuli and correlated to the mean number of stimuli during the temporal interval rather than rate of stimulus presentation.

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