Temporal expectancy modulates stimulus–response integration

We can use information derived from passing time to anticipate an upcoming event. If time before an event varies, responses towards this event become faster with increasing waiting time. This variable-foreperiod effect has been often observed in response-speed studies. Different action control frameworks assume that response and stimulus features are integrated into an event file that is retrieved later if features repeat. Yet the role of foreperiods has so far not been investigated in action control. Thus, we investigated the influence of foreperiod on the integration of action-perception features. Participants worked through a standard distractor–response binding paradigm where two consecutive responses are made towards target letters while distractor letters are present. Responses and/or distractors can repeat or change from first to second display, leading to partial repetition costs when only some features repeat or repetition benefits when all features repeat (the difference constituting distractor–response binding). To investigate the effect of foreperiod, we also introduced an anti-geometric distribution of foreperiods to the time interval before the first response display. We observed that distractor–response binding increased with increasing foreperiod duration, and speculate that this was driven by an increase in motor readiness induced by temporal expectancy.

Time . . . and How We Study It

This chapter surveys a number of the popular experimental designs used to study people’s perception (or estimation) of time. This includes descriptions of paradigms that present isolated pairs of time intervals for people to compare as well as experimental designs that require people to anticipate certain target onsets in various contexts. In this respect, it distinguishes between designs that require people to respond to time and those designs that require people to use time. Also discussed are paradigms that record driven rhythms in the form of cortical oscillations. Concepts of attending, anticipatory attending, and temporal expectancy are also introduced in this chapter.