EXPRESS: Time Periods Feel Longer When They Span More Category Boundaries: Evidence From the Lab and the Field

Seven experiments (total N = 3,509) and a large field dataset (N = 1,820,671) demonstrate that time periods of equal duration are not always perceived as equivalent. We find that periods feel longer when they span more time categories (e.g., hour, month). For example, periods like 1:45pm – 3:15pm and March 31st – April 6th (boundary-expanded) feel longer than, say, 1:15pm – 2:45pm and April 2nd – April 8th (boundary-compressed). Reflecting this, participants anticipated completing more work during boundary-expanded periods than equivalent boundary-compressed periods. This effect appears to result from the salience and placement of time boundaries. As a consequence, participants preferred scheduling pleasant activities for boundary-expanded and unpleasant activities for boundary-compressed periods. Moreover, participants were willing to pay more to avoid—and required more money to endure—a long wait when it was presented as boundary-expanded. Finally, data from over 1.8 million rideshare trips suggest that consumers are more likely to choose independent rides (e.g., UberX) when they are boundary-compressed when the alternative shared option (e.g., UberPool) is boundary-expanded. Together, our studies reveal that time periods feel longer when they span more boundaries, and that this phenomenon shapes consumers’ scheduling and purchasing decisions.

Music Tempo and Perception of Time: Musically Trained vs Nontrained Individuals

In this experiment we explored the effect of music tempo on the perception of time. Musically trained and nontrained participants carried out a reproduction task with music clips of various durations and tempos. Results revealed that the reproduced durations were longer for fast-tempo music clips than for slow-tempo music clips of equal duration. In addition, short clips were more accurately reproduced compared to longer stimuli. Notably, the error in reproducing the duration of a stimulus was overall lower for musically trained than nontrained participants, but more so for short than long clips. Finally, the accuracy in estimating the duration of the music clips correlated positively with years of musical training, further suggesting that musical training is a critical variable for time estimation.

‘SleepCycles’ package for R - A free software tool for the detection of sleep cycles from sleep staging

The detection of sleep cycles in human sleep data (i.e. polysomnographically assessed sleep stages) enables fine-grained analyses of ultradian variations in sleep microstructure (e.g. sleep spindles, and arousals), or other amplitude- and frequency-specific electroencephalographic features during sleep. While many laboratories have software that is used internally, reproducibility requires the availability of open source software. Therefore, we here introduce the ‘SleepCycles’ package for R, an open-source software package that identifies sleep cycles and their respective (non-) rapid eye movement ([N]REM) periods from sleep staging data. Additionally, each (N)REM period is subdivided into parts of equal duration, which may be useful for further fine-grained analyses. The detection criteria are, with some adaptations, largely based on criteria originally proposed by Feinberg and Floyd (1979). The latest version of the package can be downloaded from the Comprehensive R Archives Network (CRAN).•The package ‘SleepCycles’ for R allows to identify sleep cycles and their respective NREM and REM from sleep staging results.•Besides the cycle detection, NREM and REM are also split into parts of equal duration (percentiles) thereby allowing for a better temporal resolution across the night and temporal alignment of sleep cycles with different durations among different night recordings.

Äquinoktium – ein pädagogischer Ansatz im Anschluss an Jan Patočkas »Ketzerische Essays«

Equinox – An Educational Approach following Jan Patočka’s »Ketzerische Essays«Equinox describes the moment when daytime and nighttime are of exact equal duration, which occurs only twice a year. In his »Heretical Essays« the Czech Philosopher Jan Patočka (1907–1977) tries to explain the traumatic experiences of the Twentieth Century with the subtle displacement of the ›Night‹ as a symbol of deficient knowledge since the age of Enlightenment. This article tries to develop a pedagogical approach which refers to his idea of human existence as ›Movement‹ in order to create a new balance of light and darkness.

Cardiorespiratory Responses to Continuous and Intermittent Exercises in Children

The aim of the study was to characterize aerobic responses to high intensity intermittent (HIIE) and continuous (CE) exercises in prepubertal children. 26 children aged 8 to 11-year-old took part in a preliminary session to determine peakVO2 and Maximal Aerobic Velocity (MAV). In 5 subsequent experimental visits, the participants completed 2 CE and 3 HIIE sessions in a randomized order. HIIE consisted of short intermittent 10-s and 20-s running bouts at 100 to 130% MAV, interspersed with recovery periods of equal duration (S-HIIE1 and S-HIIE2 respectively) and 5-s of sprinting and jumping at maximal intensity with 15-s recovery periods (S-HIIE3). CE consisted of 2 10-min running periods at 80% and 85% MAV with a 5-min recovery period. CE protocols elicited higher average VO2 and exercise time spent above 95% of peakVO2 compared to the HIIE protocols. S-HIIE 1 and S-HIIE 2 elicited similar average VO2 response, higher than S-HIIE 3. Our study shows that CE activated the aerobic system to a greater extent than S-HIIE in prepubertal children, as reflected by the time above 95% of peakVO2 during exercise. However, isotime S-HIIE protocols comprising 10-s or 20-s exercise bouts at an intensity above MAV result in similar times above 95% of peakVO2 during exercise.

Distinguer une expérience intense courte à propos d’un objet d’art d’une expérience rudimentaire de même longueur

What happens when someone establishes a brief but intense rapport with an art object? What are the characteristics of such an experience? How does it unfold and how to differentiate it from a non-intense (basic) rapport of equal duration? Description of an instrument used to analyse both types of events when experienced by visitors in a general public-type museum. KEYWORDS: Museum; adults; intensive experience; simple experience; characteristicsRésumé: Que se passe-t-il durant une expérience intense courte à propos d’un objet d’art ? Quelles sont les caractéristiques de ce type d’expérience, comment se déroule-t-elle et comment se différencie-t-elle d’une expérience non intense (rudimentaire) de même longueur ? Description d’un instrument qui a permis d’étudier l’une et l’autre au moment même où elles sont vécues par des visiteurs de musée de type grand public.MOTS CLES: Musée, adultes; expérience intense; expérience rudimentaire; caractéristiques.

Webs and Snares: Multiple References in Babbitt’sHomilyandBeaten Paths

Babbitt’s propensity for multiple references (“puns”) is explored through examination ofHomily(1987) for snare drum andBeaten Paths(1988) for marimba, two short percussion pieces based on the same 4-part all-partition array.Homilypresents an M7version of the array in time, changing durational units at each aggregate, and articulating lynes by dynamics.Beaten Pathspresents the array in pitch as two R-related arrays combined in a superarray, as well as in time, articulating lyne pairs in the former by register, and lynes in the latter by dynamics.Homilycross-references row segments that appear elsewhere in the array, whileBeaten Pathsindexes specific single-lyne partitions from elsewhere in the array via equal-duration strings. The works’ interior cross-references illustrate how one string of sounds may refer to multiple structures quite different in kind, while the two works’ distinct instrumental colors, array incarnations, cross-reference intricacies, and subset vocabularies demonstrate how one array type can give rise to sounds of vastly different effect.