A mathematical model for time perception with experimentally obtained subjective time scales for humans and rats.

Abstract

The concept of sensation measurement with the entailing subjective scales is explained. It is shown that linearity between, e.g. sensation halving values and standard values implies that subjective sensation (output) grows as a power function of the physical measure of the stimulus (input). This outcome can be used in the scaling of subjective duration, based on reproduction experiments, i.e., experiments in which the participants are required to reproduce given time intervals, e.g., indicated by noise. It will be shown that what is reproduction for the participant is halving for the experimenter, making it possible to determine the parameters of the power function. The model is confirmed experimentally for humans and rats, the rats having a lower exponent than adults. In a recent experiment it was shown that the reproduced durations differ between female and male observers as well as for different sound intensities. These differences could be attributed to differences in parameter values. An interesting observation is that almost all power functions exhibit a discontinuity, possibly indicating a switch between different neural loops as the durations become longer.