Abstract
When a relatively short empty time interval is preceded by an even shorter one, its duration can be underestimated remarkably. This phenomenon, calledtime-shrinking, has been investigated with patterns consisting of two time intervals. In five experiments, we investigated whether underestimation of the last interval would occur when it was preceded by two time intervals. Significant underestimations of the last interval occurred in some of those patterns. The influence of the second preceding interval was dominant, but in some patterns, the first preceding interval could shrink the subjective duration of the last time interval directly. The first interval could also affect perception of the duration of the last one indirectly by shrinking the second interval, as a result of which the latter either shrank the last interval more strongly or became too short to shrink it. There were two types of temporal patterns in which the perceived duration of the last interval could not be explained by time-shrinking or its propagation through the pattern. It seemed plausible that auditory Gestalt principles invoked strong figural organizations in these patterns, which rendered the time-shrinking mechanism inoperative.
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The main part of this article is based upon the master’s thesis of D.S., submitted in March 1998 to the Kyushu Institute of Design, Dept. of Acoustic Design, Fukuoka, Japan.
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Sasaki, T., Suetomi, D., Nakajima, Y. et al. Time-shrinking, its propagation, and Gestalt principles. Perception & Psychophysics 64, 919–931 (2002). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196796
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196796