The direction of visual motion has been shown to affect the perception of interval duration; objects moving towards an observer (i.e., looming) are perceived to last longer than objects moving away (i.e., receding), and this has been explained in terms of arousal- or attention-based modulation. To dissociate the two competing accounts, we investigated how the influence of motion direction on duration perception is modulated by the emotional content of stimuli. Participants were given the temporal bisection task with images of emotional faces (angry, happy, and neutral) presented in a static (Experiment 1) or dynamic (Experiment 2) display. In Experiment 1, we found no influence of facial emotion on perceived duration. In Experiment 2, however, looming (i.e., expanding) stimuli were perceived as lasting longer than receding (contracting) ones. More importantly, we found an interaction between participant-rated arousal to faces and motion direction: The looming/receding asymmetry was pronounced when the stimulus arousal was rated low, but this asymmetry diminished with increasing arousal ratings. Thus, looming/receding temporal asymmetry seems to be reduced when arousing facial expressions enhance attentional engagement.
AngrilliA.CherubiniP.PaveseA.ManfrediniS. (1997). The influence of affective factors on time perception. Perception & Psychophysics, 59(6), 972–982. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03205512
2.
AuR. K.OnoF.WatanabeK. (2012). Time dilation induced by object motion is based on spatiotopic but not retinotopic positions. Frontiers in Psychology, 3(58), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00058
3.
BaayenR. H.DavidsonD. J.BatesD. M. (2008). Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59(4), 390–412. https://doi.org/10.1080/00273171.2021.1889946
BarrD. J.LevyR.ScheepersC.TilyH. J. (2013). Random effects structure for confirmatory hypothesis testing: Keep it maximal. Journal of Memory and Language, 68(3), 255–278. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2012.11.001
6.
BatesD.MächlerM.BolkerB.WalkerS. (2015). Fitting linear mixed-effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v067.i01
7.
BlockR. A.HancockP. A.ZakayD. (2000). Sex differences in duration judgments: A meta-analytic review. In HelfrichH. (Ed.), Time and mind (pp. 171–195). Kirkland, WA: Hogrefe and Huber.
8.
BlockR. A.ZakayD (1996). Models of psychological time revisited. In H. Helfrich (Ed.), Time and mind (pp. 171–195). Kirkland, WA: Hogrefe & Huber.
BrendelE.HechtH.DeLuciaP. R.GamerM. (2014). Emotional effects on time-to-contact judgments: Arousal, threat, and fear of spiders modulate the effect of pictorial content. Experimental Brain Research, 232(7), 2337–2347. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-014-3930-0
12.
BrownS. W. (1995). Time, change, and motion: The effects of stimulus movement on temporal perception. Perception & Psychophysics, 57(1), 105–116. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03211853
13.
BrownS. W. (1997). Attentional resources in timing: Interference effects in concurrent temporal and nontemporal working memory tasks. Perception & Psychophysics, 59(7), 1118–1140. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03205526
14.
BurleB.CasiniL. (2001). Dissociation between activation and attention effects in time estimation: Implications for internal clock models. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 27(1), 195–205. https://doi.org/10.1037//0096-1523.27.1.195
15.
CharrasP.Droit-VoletS.BrechetC.CoullJ. T. (2017). The spatial representation of time can be flexibly oriented in the frontal or lateral planes from an early age. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 43(4), 832–845. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000349
16.
DeLuciaP. R.BrendelE.HechtH.StacyR. L.LarsenJ. T. (2014). Threatening scenes but not threatening faces shorten time-to-contact estimates. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 76(6), 1698–1708. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-014-0681-8
17.
Droit-VoletS.BrunotS.NiedenthalP. (2004). Perception of the duration of emotional events. Cognition and Emotion, 18(6), 849–858. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930341000194
18.
Droit-VoletS.FayolleS. L.GilS. (2011). Emotion and time perception: Effects of film- induced mood. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 5(33), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnint.2011.00033
Droit-VoletS.MermillodM.Cocenas-SilvaR.GilS. (2010). The effect of expectancy of a threatening event on time perception in human adults. Emotion, 10(6), 908–914. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020258
EkmanP.FriesenW. V.O’SullivanM.ChanA.Diacoyanni-TarlatzisI.HeiderK. A.KrauseR.LeCompteW. A.PitcairnT.Ricci-BittiP. E.SchererK.TomitaM.TzavarasA. (1987). Universals and cultural differences in the judgments of facial expressions of emotion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53(4), 712–717. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.53.4.712
23.
FaulF.ErdfelderE.LangA. G.BuchnerA. (2007). G*power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39(2), 175–191. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03193146
FranconeriS. L.SimonsD. J. (2003). Moving and looming stimuli capture attention. Perception & Psychophysics, 65(7), 999–1010. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03194829
27.
GibbonJ.ChurchR. M.MeckW. H. (1984). Scalar timing in memory. In GibbonJ.AllanL. (Eds.), Timing and time perception423, (pp. 52–77). New York Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1984.tb23417.x
28.
GibsonJ. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Houghton Mifflin.
29.
GilS.Droit-VoletS. (2011). “Time flies in the presence of angry faces”… depending on the temporal task used!Acta Psychologica, 136(3), 354–362. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2010.12.010
GrassiM. (2010). Sex difference in subjective duration of looming and receding sounds. Perception, 39(10), 1424–1426. https://doi.org/10.1068/p6810
32.
GrassiM.PavanA. (2012). The subjective duration of audiovisual looming and receding stimuli. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 74(6), 1321–1333. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-012-0324-x
33.
GrommetE. K.Droit-VoletS.GilS.HemmesN. S.BakerA. H.BrownB. L. (2011). Time estimation of fear cues in human observers. Behavioural Processes, 86(1), 88–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2010.10.003
34.
GrommetE. K.HemmesN. S.BrownB. L. (2019). The role of clock and memory processes in the timing of fear cues by humans in the temporal bisection task. Behavioural Processes, 164(1), 217–229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2019.05.016
35.
HancockP. A.RauschR. (2010). The effects of sex, age, and interval duration on the perception of time. Acta Psychologica, 133(2), 170–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2009.11.005
36.
JaegerT. F. (2008). Categorical data analysis: Away from ANOVAs (transformation or not) and towards logit mixed models. Journal of Memory and Language, 59(4), 434–446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2007.11.007
37.
KanaiR.PaffenC. L. E.HogendoornH.VerstratenF. A. J. (2006). Time dilation in dynamic visual display. Journal of Vision, 6(12), 1421–1430. https://doi.org/10.1167/6.12.8
38.
KanekoS.MurakamiI. (2009). Perceived duration of visual motion increases with speed. Journal of Vision, 9(7), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1167/9.7.14
39.
KarşılarH.KısaY. D.BalcıF. (2018). Dilation and constriction of subjective time based on observed walking speed. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(2565), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02565
KingS. M.CoweyA. (1992). Defensive responses to looming visual stimuli in monkeys with unilateral striate cortex ablation. Neuropsychologia, 30(11), 1017–1024. https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(92)90053-O
42.
KleinerM.BrainardD. H.PelliD. G. (2007). What’s new in Psychtoolbox-3?Perception, 36(14), 1–16. ECVP Abstract Supplement.
43.
KlineS. R.ReedC. L. (2013). Contextual influences of dimension, speed, and direction of motion on subjective time perception. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 75(1), 161–167. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13414-012-0370-4
44.
KuznetsovaA.BrockhoffP. B.ChristensenR. H. B. (2017). lmerTest package: Tests in linear mixed effects models. Journal of Statistical Software, 82(13), 26.
45.
LakeJ. I.LaBarK. S.MeckW. H. (2016). Emotional modulation of interval timing and time perception. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 64, 403–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.03.003
46.
LeeK. H.SeelamK.O’BrienT. (2011). The relativity of time perception produced by facial emotion stimuli. Cognition & Emotion, 25(8), 1471–1480. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2010.544455
47.
LiW. O.YuenK. S. L. (2015). The perception of time while perceiving dynamic emotional faces. Frontiers in Psychology, 6(1248), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01248
MarshA. A.AmbadyN.KeckR. E. (2005). The effects of fear and anger facial expressions on approach- and avoidance-related behaviors. Emotion, 5(1), 119–124. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.5.1.119
MatherM.SutherlandM. R (2011). Arousal-biased competition in perception and memory. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(2), 114–133. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691611400234
52.
MatsumotoD.EkmanP. (1989). American-Japanese cultural differences in intensity ratings of facial expressions of emotion. Motivation and Emotion, 13(2), 143–157. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00992959
53.
MatthewsW. J. (2011). How do changes in speed affect the perception of duration?Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 37(5), 1617–1627. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022193
54.
MeckW. H. (1983). Selective adjustment of the speed of internal clock and memory processes. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Behavior Processes, 9(2), 171–201. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.9.2.171
55.
NeuhoffJ. G. (2018). Adaptive biases in visual and auditory looming perception. In HubbardT. L. (Ed.), Spatial biases in perception and cognition (pp. 180–190). Cambridge University Press.
56.
NewJ. J.SchollB. J. (2009). Subjective time dilation: Spatially local, object-based, or a global visual experience?Journal of Vision, 9(2), 4–11. https://doi.org/10.1167/9.2.4
ÖhmanA.FlyktA.EstevesF. (2001). Emotion drives attention: Detecting the snake in the grass. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130(3), 466–478. https://doi.org/10.1037//0096-3445.130.3.466
PastorM. C.BradleyM. M.LöwA.VersaceF.MoltóJ.LangP. J. (2008). Affective picture perception: Emotion, context, and the late positive potential. Brain Research, 1189(1), 145–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2007.10.072
62.
PelliD. G. (1997). The VideoToolbox software for visual psychophysics: Transforming numbers into movies. Spatial Vision, 10(4), 437–442. https://doi.org/10.1163/156856897x00366
63.
PenneyT. B.ChengX. (2018). Duration bisection: A user’s guide. In Timing and time perception: Procedures, measures, & applications (pp. 98–127). Brill.
64.
PoynterD. (1989). Judging the duration of time intervals: A process of remembering segments of experience. In Advances in psychology (Vol. 59, pp. 305–331). North-Holland.
65.
R Core Team. (2020). R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing.
66.
RussellJ. A. (1980). A circumplex model of affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(6), 1161–1178. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0077714
SchiffW.CavinessJ. A.GibsonJ. J. (1962). Persistent fear responses in rhesus monkeys to the optical stimulus of “looming”. Science, 136(3520), 982–983. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.136.3520.982
69.
SeoJ.KimE.KimS. H. (2021). A directional congruency effect of amplified dilated time perception induced by looming stimuli with implied motion cues. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 128(2), 585–604. https://doi.org/10.1177/0031512520987361
70.
SgouramaniH.ChatziioannouI.VatakisA. (2020). Modulating subjective timing through looming and receding biological motion. Timing & Time Perception, 8(1–18), 221–238. https://doi.org/10.1163/22134468-bja10006
SkarrattP. A.ColeG. G.GellatlyA. R. (2009). Prioritization of looming and receding objects: Equal slopes, different intercepts. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 71(4), 964–970. https://doi.org/10.3758/APP.71.4.964
74.
SkarrattP. A.GellatlyA. R.ColeG. G.PillingM.HullemanJ. (2014). Looming motion primes the visuomotor system. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 40(2), 566. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034456
75.
SzelagE.KanabusM.KolodziejczykI.KowalskaJ.SzuchnikJ. (2004). Individual differences in temporal information processing in humans. Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis, 64(3), 349–366.
76.
TipplesJ. (2011). When time stands still: Fear-specific modulation of temporal bias due to threat. Emotion, 11(1), 74–80. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0022015
77.
TottenhamN.TanakaJ. W.LeonA. C.McCarryT.NurseM.HareT. A.MarcusD. J.WesterlundA.CaseyB. J.NelsonC. (2009). The NimStim set of facial expressions: Judgments from untrained research participants. Psychiatry Research, 168(3), 242–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2008.05.006
78.
TreismanM. (1963). Temporal discrimination and the indifference interval: Implications for a model of the “internal clock”. Psychological Monographs, 77(31), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0093864
79.
TseP. U.IntriligatorJ.RivestJ.CavanaghP. (2004). Attention and the subjective expansion of time. Perception & Psychophysics, 66(7), 1171–1189. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03196844
80.
VagnoniE.LourencoS. F.LongoM. R. (2012). Threat modulates perception of looming visual stimuli. Current Biology, 22(19), R826–R827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.07.053
81.
van WassenhoveV.BuonomanoD. V.ShimojoS.ShamsL. (2008). Distortions of subjective time perception within and across senses. PloS One, 3(1), e1437. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001437
82.
VogtJ.De HouwerJ.KosterE. H.Van DammeS.CrombezG. (2008). Allocation of spatial attention to emotional stimuli depends upon arousal and not valence. Emotion, 8(6), 880–885. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013981
83.
WittmannM.Van WassenhoveV.CraigB.PaulusM. P. (2010). The neural substrates of subjective time dilation. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 4(2), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.09.002.2010
ZakayD.BlockR. A. (1995). An attentional-gate model of prospective time estimation. In RichelleM.KeyserV. D.d'YdewalleG.VandierendonckA. (Eds.), Time and the dynamic control of behavior (pp. 167–178). Liège, Belgium: Universite de Lieg
86.
ZhangZ.JiaL.RenW. (2014). Time changes with feeling of speed: An embodied perspective. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 8(14), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2014.00014
