Memory bias in the temporal bisection point

Controlling for temporal discounting shifts rats from geometric to human-like arithmetic bisection

10.1101/245092 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Charles D Kopec ◽

Carlos D Brody

Keyword(s):

Human Subjects ◽

Geometric Mean ◽

Temporal Discounting ◽

Behavioral Model ◽

Arithmetic Mean ◽

Bisection Task ◽

Temporal Bisection ◽

Bisection Point ◽

The Difference ◽

Temporal Bisection Task

AbstractHow our brains measure the passage of time is still largely open for debate. One behavioral task commonly used to study how durations are perceived is the Temporal Bisection Task, in which subjects categorize time durations as either “short” or “long.” The duration equally likely to be categorized as short or long is known as the bisection point. It has been consistently demonstrated that for humans, the bisection point is near the arithmetic mean of the longest and shortest durations the subject was trained on. In contrast, for non-human subjects it has been consistently found near the geometric mean. This difference implies that humans may process or represent temporal durations differently than other species. Here we present a behavioral model that reconciles the differences by demonstrating that rats’ performance on this task is driven not only by their noisy estimates of duration, but also by the temporally-discounted value of future rewards. The model correctly predicts shifts in the bisection point induced by unequal rewards and explains otherwise-paradoxical psychometric reversals documented three decades ago. Furthermore, as predicted by the model, we found that modifying the Temporal Bisection Task to eliminate the temporally-discounted reward component shifted the rats’ bisection point from the geometric mean to the arithmetic mean, thus bringing the rat results into line with the human results. We therefore propose that humans and rats (and perhaps other non-human subjects as well) process temporal information similarly, and that the difference between them in the Temporal Bisection Task may be simply due to rats weighing temporal discounting of future rewards more strongly than humans.

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Stimulus Range Effects in Temporal Bisection by Humans

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section B ◽

10.1080/713932615 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 49 (1b) ◽

pp. 24-44 ◽

Cited By ~ 87

Author(s):

J.H. Wearden ◽

A. Ferrara

Keyword(s):

Human Subjects ◽

Geometric Mean ◽

Critical Role ◽

Stimulus Range ◽

Bisection Task ◽

Stimulus Set ◽

Spacing Effects ◽

Temporal Bisection ◽

Bisection Point ◽

Stimulus Spacing

Two experiments with human subjects, using short-duration tones as stimuli to be judged, investigated the effect of the range of the stimulus set on temporal bisection performance. In Experiment 1, six groups of subjects were tested on a temporal bisection task, where each stimulus had to be classified as “short” or “long”. For three groups, the difference between the longest (L) and shortest (S) durations in the to-be-bisected stimulus set was kept constant at 400 msec, and the L / S ratio was varied over values of 5:1 and 2:1. For three other groups, the L/S ratio was kept constant at 4:1 but the L-S difference varied from 300 to 600 msec. The bisection point (the stimulus value resulting in 50% “long” responses) was located closer to the arithmetic mean of L and S than the geometric mean for all groups except that for which the L / S ratio was 2:1, in which case geometric mean bisection was found. In Experiment 2, stimuli were spaced between L and S either linearly or logarithmically, and the L / S ratio took values of either 2:1 or 19:1. Geometric mean bisection was found in both cases when the L / S ratio was 2:1, but effects of stimulus spacing were found only when the L / S ratio was 19:1. Overall, the results supported a previous conjecture that the L / S ratio used in a bisection task played a critical role in determining the behaviour obtained. A theoretical model of bisection advanced by Wearden (1991) dealt appropriately with bisection point shifts discussed above but encountered difficulties with stimulus spacing effects.

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Speeding up an Internal Clock in Children? Effects of Visual Flicker on Subjective Duration

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section B ◽

10.1080/02724990143000252 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 55 (3b) ◽

pp. 193-211 ◽

Cited By ~ 120

Author(s):

Sylvie Droit-Volet ◽

John Wearden

Keyword(s):

Discrimination Training ◽

Internal Clock ◽

Difference Limen ◽

Subjective Duration ◽

Bisection Task ◽

White Circle ◽

Temporal Bisection ◽

Bisection Point ◽

Temporal Bisection Task ◽

Weber Ratio

Children of 3, 5, and 8 years of age were trained on a temporal bisection task where visual stimuli in the form of blue circles of 200 and 800 ms or 400 and 1600 ms duration, preceded by a 5-s white circle, served as the short and long standards. Following discrimination training between the standards, stimuli in the ranges 200-800 ms or 400-1600 ms were presented with the white circle either constant or flickering. Relative to the constant white circle, the flicker (1) increased the proportion of “long” responses (responses appropriate to the long standard), (2) shifted the psychophysical functions to the left, (3) decreased bisection point values, at all ages, and (4) did not systematically affect measures of temporal sensitivity, such as difference limen and Weber ratio. The results were consistent with the idea that the repetitive flicker had increased the speed of the pacemaker of an internal clock in children as young as 3 years. The “pacemaker speed” interpretation of the results was further strengthened by a greater effect of flicker in the 400/1600-ms condition than in the 200/800-ms condition.

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Temporal bisection is influenced by ensemble statistics of the stimulus set

Attention Perception & Psychophysics ◽

10.3758/s13414-020-02202-z ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Xiuna Zhu ◽

Cemre Baykan ◽

Hermann J. Müller ◽

Zhuanghua Shi

Keyword(s):

Related Factors ◽

Stimulus Set ◽

Temporal Bisection ◽

Bisection Point ◽

Stimulus Spacing ◽

Ensemble Statistics ◽

Mean And Variance ◽

The Mean ◽

Duration Comparison ◽

Temporal Judgments

AbstractAlthough humans are well capable of precise time measurement, their duration judgments are nevertheless susceptible to temporal context. Previous research on temporal bisection has shown that duration comparisons are influenced by both stimulus spacing and ensemble statistics. However, theories proposed to account for bisection performance lack a plausible justification of how the effects of stimulus spacing and ensemble statistics are actually combined in temporal judgments. To explain the various contextual effects in temporal bisection, we develop a unified ensemble-distribution account (EDA), which assumes that the mean and variance of the duration set serve as a reference, rather than the short and long standards, in duration comparison. To validate this account, we conducted three experiments that varied the stimulus spacing (Experiment 1), the frequency of the probed durations (Experiment 2), and the variability of the probed durations (Experiment 3). The results revealed significant shifts of the bisection point in Experiments 1 and 2, and a change of the sensitivity of temporal judgments in Experiment 3—which were all well predicted by EDA. In fact, comparison of EDA to the extant prior accounts showed that using ensemble statistics can parsimoniously explain various stimulus set-related factors (e.g., spacing, frequency, variance) that influence temporal judgments.

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The Location and Interpretation of the Bisection Point

The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology Section B ◽

10.1080/02724990143000162 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 55 (1b) ◽

pp. 43-60 ◽

Cited By ~ 42

Author(s):

Lorraine G. Allan

Keyword(s):

Psychometric Function ◽

Equal Frequency ◽

Temporal Bisection ◽

Bisection Point ◽

Probe Spacing

In atemporal bisectiontask with humans, the observer is required to decide whether a probe duration (t) is more similar to the short referent (S), an R S response, or to the long referent (L), an R L response. Temporal bisection yields a psychometric function relating the proportion of long responses, P(R L), to probe duration t. The value of t at which R S and R L occur with equal frequency, P(RL) =.5, is referred to as the bisection point, T 1/2. Bisection models usually interpret T 1/2 as identifying the value of t that is equally confusable with S and L, but they differ in their predictions for the location of T 1/2. The present paper presents new data relevant to the location and interpretation of T 1/2. The data indicate that the empirical values usually are biased, the biases being influenced by duration range, L:S ratio, and probe spacing. Moreover, the biases often are not consistent across observers. It is concluded that empirical values of T 1/2 should not be interpreted as indicating the value of t that is equally confusable with S and L.

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Multidimensional Anxiety and Content-specificity Effects in Preferential Processing of Threat

European Psychologist ◽

10.1027//1016-9040.8.4.252 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 252-265 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Manuel G. Calvo ◽

P. Avero ◽

M. Dolores Castillo ◽

Juan J. Miguel-Tobal

Keyword(s):

Selective Attention ◽

Cognitive Biases ◽

Naming Task ◽

Color Naming ◽

Memory Bias ◽

Ego Threat ◽

Phobic Anxiety ◽

Relative Contribution ◽

Content Specificity ◽

Specificity Effects

We examined the relative contribution of specific components of multidimensional anxiety to cognitive biases in the processing of threat-related information in three experiments. Attentional bias was assessed by the emotional Stroop word color-naming task, interpretative bias by an on-line inference processing task, and explicit memory bias by sensitivity (d') and response criterion (β) from word-recognition scores. Multiple regression analyses revealed, first, that phobic anxiety and evaluative anxiety predicted selective attention to physical- and ego-threat information, respectively; cognitive anxiety predicted selective attention to both types of threat. Second, phobic anxiety predicted inhibition of inferences related to physically threatening outcomes of ambiguous situations. And, third, evaluative anxiety predicted a response bias, rather than a genuine memory bias, in the reporting of presented and nonpresented ego-threat information. Other anxiety components, such as motor and physiological anxiety, or interpersonal and daily-routines anxiety made no specific contribution to any cognitive bias. Multidimensional anxiety measures are useful for detecting content-specificity effects in cognitive biases.

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You Are the One I Want to Communicate With!

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000097 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 44 (1) ◽

pp. 16-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Sabrina Pierucci ◽

Olivier Klein ◽

Andrea Carnaghi

Keyword(s):

Memory Bias ◽

Shared Reality ◽

Communication Partner ◽

Shared Reality Theory ◽

The One ◽

Study Participants

This article investigates the role of relational motives in the saying-is-believing effect ( Higgins & Rholes, 1978 ). Building on shared reality theory, we expected this effect to be most likely when communicators were motivated to “get along” with the audience. In the current study, participants were asked to describe an ambiguous target to an audience who either liked or disliked the target. The audience had been previously evaluated as a desirable vs. undesirable communication partner. Only participants who communicated with a desirable audience tuned their messages to suit their audience’s attitude toward the target. In line with predictions, they also displayed an audience-congruent memory bias in later recall.

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