Patterning in the perception of time

Geyer, William Marius

Patterning in the perception of time

Master Thesis

1983

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Psychology

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

Oxtoby's novel study in 1971 coupled the perception of time to the patterning of stimuli. The present study is an open-ended investigation that further explores this area. It particularly addresses the question of whether or not the ratio of the lengths of successive intervals in a series, affects the accuracy of reproduction of that series. 48 normal human subject volunteers from the first year psychology population of the University of Cape Town each reproduced 16 four-interval series in two experiments with target intervals of either 1 000 milliseconds or 3 000 milliseconds. The "empty" intervals were delimited by 50 millisecond sound pulses. Each series consisted of a target interval and three "other" intervals. In any given series, the three "other" intervals were equal, and their durations relative to the standard were in one of the following ratios: 1:3, 3:1, 1:2, 2:1, 2:3, 3:2. Six groups of 8 subjects each were used. In the two experiments each group was assigned to one temporal ratio. Each group reproduced 8 series. In 4 of these series the subjects were required to reproduce the entire series as heard. In the other 4, the subject heard the entire series but reproduced the target interval only. Each series was heard and reproduced three times before moving on to the next series. In both experiments the target interval was assigned to either the first, second, third or fourth position in the series, for both the entire reproduction and the reproduction of the target interval only. The subjects' error of reproduction was measured.

Description

Bibliography: pages 85-92.

Keywords

Psychology

Reference:

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