Effect of the number and diversity of visual stimuli on the reproduction of short time intervals.

Abstract

Presenting more items within a space makes the space look and feel bigger. Presenting more tones within a time interval makes the interval seem longer. Does presenting more visual items also make a time interval seem longer? Does it matter what these items are? A series of 2-4 images were presented sequentially on a screen. Participants had to press the spacebar to indicate either the interval between the first and the last item or the intervals between all items. The first and last items were red squares with onset asynchronies of 700, 900, or 1,100 ms. We found that the times between key presses were longer when additional items had different shapes and colors than when they were also red squares. With only red squares, the time may even decrease with the number of items. Whether one had to tap for all targets or only the first and the last hardly mattered.