The influence of prior exposure to an altered sensory environment on subsequent subjective time estimation was the focus of the present study. It was hypothesized that the more varied the sensory environment (i.e., perceptual overload versus perceptual deprivation), the longer the time that is verbally estimated, and the shorter the time estimation obtained by the method of production. This hypothesis was supported for the data gathered by the latter method, but not by the former one, in a 3 x 4 factorial design employing 96 subjects, who were exposed to various combinations of auditory and visual stimulation. The conclusion drawn is that visual and auditory stimulation interact in their production of an altered sensory environment, and that the rate of functioning of the cognitive timer is environment dependent.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Aitken, R.C.B. , & Gedye, J. L. (1968). A study of two factors which affect arousal level and the apparent duration of a ten-minute interval. British Journal of Psychology, 59, 253-263.
2.
Allan, L. G. (1979). The perception of time. Perception and Psychophysics, 26, 340-354.
3.
Avant, L. L. (1965). Vision in the ganzfeld. Psychological Bulletin, 64, 246-258.
4.
Barabasz, A. F. (1980). Effects of hypnosis and perceptual deprivation on vigilance in a simulated radar target-detection task. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 50(1), 19-24.
5.
Bindra, D. , & Waksberg, H. (1956). Methods and terminology in studies of time estimation. Psychological Bulletin, 53, 155-159.
6.
Block, R. A. (1979). Time and consciousness. In G. Underwood & R. Stevens (Eds.), Aspects of consciousness, Vol. 1: Psychological issues (pp. 179-217). London: Academic Press.
7.
Block, R. A. (1990). Models of psychological time. In R. A. Block (Ed.), Cognitive models of psychological time (pp. 1-35). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
8.
Bohlin, G. (1973). Interaction of arousal and habituation in the development of sleep and monotonous stimulation. Biological Psychology, 1, 99-114.
9.
Bross, M. , & Zubek, J. P. (1975). Effect of auditory deprivation on visual resolving power. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 29, 340-347.
10.
Brown, S. W. (1985). Time perception and attention: The effects of prospective and retrospective paradigms and task demands on perceived duration. Perception and Psychophysics, 38, 115-124.
11.
Cahoon, R. L. (1969). Physiological arousal and time estimation. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 28, 259-268.
12.
Claridge, G. (1981). Arousal. In G. Underwood & R. Stevens (Eds.), Aspects of consciousness, Vol. 2: Structural issues (pp. 119-147). London: Academic Press.
13.
Curton, E. D. , & Lordahl, D. S. (1974). Effects of attentional focus and arousal on time estimation. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 103, 861-867.
14.
Davies, D. R. , & Parasuraman, R. (1982). The psychology of vigilance. New York: Academic Press.
15.
Eysenck, M. W. (1982). Attention and arousal. New YorkSpringer.
16.
Fraisse, P. (1975). The psychology of time. Westport, CT: Greenwood. (Original work published in 1963)
17.
Fraisse, P. (1984). Perception and estimation of time. Annual Review of Psychology, 35, 1-36.
18.
Frankenhaeuser, M. (1959). Estimation of time: An experimental study. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
19.
Glicksohn, J. (1991). The induction of an altered state of consciousness as a function of sensory environment and experience seeking. Personality and Individual Differences, 12, 1057-1066.
20.
Hebb, D. O. (1955). Drives and the C.N.S. (conceptual nervous system). Psychological Review, 62, 243-254.
21.
Heckenmueller, E. G. (1965). Stabilization of the retinal image: A review of methods, effects, and theory. Psychological Bulletin, 63, 157-169.
22.
Hochberg, J. E. , Triebel, W., & Seaman, G. (1951). Color adaptation under conditions of homogeneous visual stimulation (Ganzfeld). Journal of Experimental Psychology, 41, 153-159.
23.
Hunt, H. T. , & Chefurka, C. M. (1976). A test of the psychedelic model of altered states of consciousness: The role of introspective sensitization in eliciting unusual subjective reports. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 867-876.
24.
Kahneman, D. (1973). Attention and effort. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
25.
Lipowski, Z. J. (1975). Sensory and information inputs overload: Behavioral effects. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 16, 199-221.
26.
Ludwig, A. M. (1971). Self-regulation of the sensory environment: Conceptual model and potential clinical applications. Archives of General Psychiatry, 25, 413-418.
27.
Ludwig, A. M. (1975). Sensory overload and psychopathology. Diseases of the Nervous System, 36, 357-360.
28.
Mandler, G. (1975). Consciousness: Respectable, useful, and probably necessary. In R. L. Solso (Ed.), Information processing and cognition: The Loyola symposium (pp. 229-254). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
29.
Marum, D. D. (1968). Reproduction and ratio-production of brief durations under conditions of sensory isolation. American Journal of Psychology, 81, 21-26.
30.
Ornstein, R. E. (1969). On the experience of time. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin.
31.
Ornstein, R. E. (1975). The psychology of consciousness. New York: Penguin.
32.
Pollack, I. W. , Ochberg, F. M., & Meyer, E. (1965). Effect of deprivation of sight on subjective time sense. Psychosomatic Medicine, 27, 71-79.
33.
Reed, G. F. (1979). Sensory deprivation. In G. Underwood & R. Stevens (Eds.), Aspects of consciusness, Vol. 1: Psychological issues (pp. 155-178). London: Academic Press.
34.
Rossi, A. M. (1969). General methodological considerations. In J. P. Zubek (Ed.), Sensory deprivation: Fifteen years of research (pp. 16-43). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
35.
Sargent, W. (1957). Battle for the mind: A physiology of conversion and brain-washing. New York: Doubleday.
36.
Sargent, W. (1973). The mind possessed: A physiology of possession, mysticism and faith healing. London: Heinemann.
37.
Suedfeld, P. (1980). Restricted environmental stimulation: Research and clinical applications. New YorkWiley.
38.
Thomas, E.A.C. , & Weaver, W. B. (1975). Cognitive processing and time perception. Perception and Psychophysics, 17, 363-367.
39.
Treisman, M. (1963). Temporal discrimination and the indifference interval: Implications for a model of the "internal clock."Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 77(13) (whole no. 576).
40.
Underwood, G. , & Stevens, R. (Eds.). (1979). Aspects of consciousness, Vol. 1: Psychological issues. London: Academic Press.
41.
Wahlsten, D. (1990). Insensitivity of the analysis of variance to heredity-environment interaction. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 109-161.
42.
Zakay, D. (1989). Subjective time and attentional resource allocation: An integrated model of time estimation. In I. Levin & D. Zakay (Eds.), Time and human cognition: A life-span perspective (pp. 365-397). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
43.
Zakay, D. , Nitzan, D., Glicksohn, J. (1983). The influence of task difficulty and external tempo on subjective time estimation. Perception and Psychophysics, 34, 451-456.
44.
Zubek, J. P. (Ed.). (1969). Sensory deprivation: Fifteen years of research. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
45.
Zuckerman, M. (1969a). Hallucinations, reported sensations and images. In J. P. Zubek (Ed.), Sensory deprivation: Fifteen years of research (pp. 85-125). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
46.
Zuckerman, M. (1969b). Variables affecting deprivation results. In J. P. Zubek (Ed.), Sensory deprivation: Fifteen years of research (pp. 47-84). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
47.
Zuckerman, M. , & Hopkins, T. R. (1966). Hallucinations or dreams? A study of arousal levels and reported visual sensations during sensory deprivation. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 22, 447-459.
48.
Zuckerman, M. , Persky, H., Miller, L., & Levine, B. (1970). Sensory deprivation versus sensory variation. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 76, 76-82.
