This experiment investigated temporal generalization performance in children aged 3, 5, and 8 years by using auditory stimulus durations where the standard was 0.4 s or 4.0 s, and non-standard stimuli were spaced linearly around the standard. At all ages, generalization gradients superimposed well when plotted on the same relative scale, indicating conformity to scalar timing. Whatever the standard duration used, the principal developmental changes were the increasing steepness of the generalization gradient with increasing age and a shift from symmetrical gradients, in the 3- and 5-year-olds, to adult-like asymmetrical gradients in the 8-year-olds.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllanL. (1998). The influence of the scalar timing model on human timing research.Behavioural Processes44, 101–117.
2.
AllanL.GibbonJ. (1991). Human bisection at the geometric mean.Learning and Motivation22, 39–58.
3.
BentallR. P.LoweC. F. (1987). The role of verbal behavior in human learning: III. Instructional effects in children.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior47, 177–190.
4.
BentallR. P.LoweC. F.BeastyA. (1985). The role of verbal behavior in human learning: II. Developmental differences.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior43, 165–181.
5.
BlockR.ZakayD.HancockP. (1999). Developmental changes in human duration judgements: A meta-analytic review.Developmental Review19, 183–211.
CohenJ.MacWhinneyB.FlattM.ProvostJ. (1993). PsyScope: An interactive graphic system for designing and controlling experiments in the psychology laboratory using Macintosh computers.Behavior Research Methods, Instruments & Computers25, 257–271.
8.
DarchevilleJ.-C.RivièreV.WeardenJ. (1993). Fixed interval performance and self-control in infants.Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior60, 239–254.
9.
DempsterF. N.BrainerdC. J. (1995). Interference and inhibition in cognitionNew York: Academic Press.
10.
DroitS. (1998). Adaptation to time in pre-school children.Time and the dynamic control of behavior.De KeyserV.d'YdewalleG.VandierendonckA.Seattle: Hogrefe & Huber Publishers157–177.
11.
DroitS.PouthasV. (1992). Changes in temporal regulation of behavior in young children: from action to representation.Time, action and cognition: Towards bridging the gap.MacarF.PouthasV.FriedmanW. J.Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers46–53.
12.
Droit-VoletS. (1998). Time estimation in young children: An initial force rule governing time production.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology68, 236–249.
13.
Droit-VoletS. (2000a). L'enfant et les diffárentes facettes du temps.Enfances & Psy13, 26–40.
14.
Droit-VoletS. (2000b). L'estimation du temps: Perspective dáveloppementale.L'Annáe Psychologique100, 443–464.
15.
Droit-VoletS.ClámentA.WeardenJ. (2001). Temporal generalization in 3-to 8-year-old children.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology80, 271–288.
16.
Droit-VoletS.GautierT. (2000). Time estimation in 3- and 51 2-year-old children: The role of instructions as a function of the type of response.Current Psychology of Cognition19, 3263–276.
17.
Droit-VoletS.RattatA.-C. (1999). Are time and action dissociated in young children's time estimation?.Cognitive Development14, 573–595.
18.
Droit-VoletS.WeardenJ. (2001). Temporal bisection in children.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology80, 142–159.
19.
Droit-VoletS.WeardenJ. (2002). Speeding up an internal clock in children? Effects of visual flicker on subjective duration.The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology55B, 193–211.
20.
FerraraA.LejeuneH.WeardenJ. (1997). Changing sensitivity to duration in human scalar timing: An experiment, a review, and some possible explanations.The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology50B, 217-137.
21.
FriedmanW. (1990). About time: Inventing the fourth dimensionCambridge, MA: MIT Press.
22.
GautierT.Droit-VoletS. (2002a). Attention and time estimation in 5-and 8-year-old children: A dual-task procedure.Behavioural Processes58, 57–66.
23.
GautierT.Droit-VoletS. (2002b). Attention and young children's time perception in temporal bisection task.International Journal of Psychology37, 27–35.
24.
GibbonJ. (1977). Scalar expectancy theory and Weber'slaw in animal timing.Psychological Review84, 3279–325.
25.
GibbonJ.ChurchR. M.MeckW. H. (1984). Scalar timing in memory.Timing and time perception.GibbonJ.AllanL.New York: The New York Academy of Sciences57–78.
26.
GigerenzerG.HoffrageU.KleinböltingH. (1991). Probabilistic mental models: A Brunswikian theory of confidence.Psychological Review98, 4504–528.
27.
LejeuneH.WeardenJ. H. (1991). The comparative psychology of fixed-interval responding: Some quantitative analyses.Learning and Motivation22, 84–111.
28.
McCormackT.BrownG. D. A.MaylorE. A.DarbyR. J.GreenD. (1999). Developmental changes in time estimation: Comparing childhood and old age.Developmental Psychology35, 41143–1155.
29.
NelsonT. O. (1996). Consciousness and metacognition.American Psychologist51, 2102–116.
30.
PouthasV.DroitS.JacquetA. Y. (1993). Temporal experience and time knowledge in infancy and early childhood.Time and Society2, 2199–218.
31.
RakitinP.GibbonJ.PenneyT.MalapaniC.HintonS.MeckW. (1998). Scalar expectancy theory and peak interval timing in humans.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes24, 115–33.
32.
RattatA.-C.Droit-VoletS. (2001). Variability in children's memory for duration.Behavioural Processes55, 81–91.
33.
WeardenJ. (1991). Human performance on an analogue of an interval bisection task.The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology43B, 59–81.
34.
WeardenJ. (1992). Temporal generalization in humans.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes18, 134–144.
35.
WeardenJ. (1995). Categorical scaling of stimulus duration by humans.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes21, 318–330.
36.
WeardenJ. (1999). Beyond the fields we know…: Exploring and developing scalar timing theory.Behavioural Processes45, 3–21.
37.
WeardenJ.DenovanL.FakhriM.HaworthR. (1997). Scalar timing in temporal generalization in humans with longer stimulus duration.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes23, 502–511.
38.
WeardenJ.FerraraA. (1995). Stimulus spacing effects in temporal bisection by humans.The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology48B, 4289–310.
39.
WeardenJ.FerraraA. (1996). Stimulus range effects in temporal bisection by humans.The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology49B, 124–44.
40.
WeardenJ.TowseJ. N. (1994). Temporal generalization in humans: Three further studies.Behavioural Processes32, 247–264.
41.
WeardenJ.WeardenA.RabbittP. (1997). Age and QI effects on stimulus and response timing.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance23, 4962–979.
42.
WilkeningF.LevinI.DruyanS. (1987). Children's counting strategies for time quantification and integration.Developmental Psychology23, 6823–831.
