Comparing the Estimation of Internally and Externally Defined Interval Durations
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Date
2019-01-16
Authors
Klein, Michael
Advisor
Stolz, Jennifer
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Waterloo
Abstract
In this thesis I distinguish between two types of temporal intervals: internally-defined and
externally-defined. Prior research on how humans estimate the durations of temporal intervals has
been focussed almost entirely on externally-defined intervals. Because internally-defined intervals
have been largely ignored, our level of understanding of how people estimate the durations of these
intervals rests on whether they do so using roughly the same set of mental processes as for
externally-defined intervals. I sought to collect some initial evidence regarding whether people do
indeed estimate the two types of durations using similar processes. A key finding was that
estimating the duration of an externally-defined interval (a stimulus on a computer screen)
interfered with performance on a concurrent task whereas estimating the duration of an internally
defined interval (a response time) did not (Chapter 2). This finding extended to several different
temporal and non-temporal tasks (Chapter 3). The results indicate that processes underlying
estimation of internally-defined intervals may differ in meaningful ways from those underlying
estimation of externally-defined intervals.
Description
Keywords
duration estimation, attention, time perception