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Abstract Previous studies have demonstrated that filled intervals are perceived as being longer than empty intervals of the same duration (i.e., the filled - duration illusion). In the present study, we asked whether the motor actions involved in filled and empty reproductions (a single continuous key press vs. two discrete key presses) would affect time estimates in a similar way. We hypothesized that reproductions of intervals of the same duration should be shorter for filled than empty reproductions (i.e., a filled - reproduction illusion). In two experiments, participants reproduced filled and empty intervals (ranging from 400 to 1,600 ms) using filled and empty reproductions. The results provided evidence for both kinds of illusions, even though the evidence was clearer for the filled - duration than for the filled - reproduction illusion. The present study demonstrates that in a situation in which both illusions work in concert, reproductions of the same interval can vary dramatically depending on the combination of interval and reproduction type.
Keywords Filled - duration illusion . Time perception . Reproduction method
The perception of time is influenced by a variety of internal factors like body temperature (e.g., Hancock, 1993) and emotions (e.g., Droit-Volet & Meck, 2007) as well as external stimulus factors like modality (e.g., Bratzke, Seifried, & Ulrich, 2012; Penney, Gibbon, & Meck, 2000; Wearden, Edwards, Fakhri, & Percival, 1998), intensity (e.g., Matthews, Stewart, & Wearden, 2011), and occurrence probability (e.g., Birngruber, Schröter, & Ulrich, 2014; Tse, Intriligator, Rivest, & Cavanagh, 2004). An important stimulus factor that influences our perception oftime is the temporal structure of the stimulus, that is, whether it is filled with stimulation (filled intervals) or with silence (empty intervals). Numerous studies have demonstrated that filled intervals are perceived as being longer than empty intervals of the same duration (i.e., the filled-duration illusion; Adams, 1977; Buffardi, 1971; Craig, 1973; Goldstone & Goldfarb, 1963; Gomez & Robertson, 1979; Hasuo, Nakajima, Tomimatsu, Grondin, & Ueda, 2014; Wearden, Norton, Martin, & Montford-Bebb, 2007).
Internal clock models (Creelman, 1962; Gibbon, Church, & Meck, 1984; Treisman, 1963; Ulrich, Nitschke, & Rammsayer, 2006; Zakay & Block, 1997) provide a useful theoretical framework to explain such nontemporal influences on perceived time. Basically, these models assume an internal pacemaker that elicits pulses and an accumulator...