We report an exploratory study that investigated the interaction of trait and task in determining duration judgment. High and low absorption subjects (determined by median split along the Absorption Scale) viewed a series of paired slides, and were required to relate to each pair in one of two tasks: A metaphor-production task, and a story-production one. These tasks were carried out for an objective interval of fifteen minutes, following which the subject was required to verbally estimate this duration, retrospectively. In addition, from the individual protocols we measured the average time till response and the average time of response. A significant interaction between absorption and task was obtained for the latter two variables. In addition, a main effect for task was found for the duration estimation. These and other results are assessed in terms of both a cognitive-timer model for time estimation and a contextualistic approach to temporal processing.
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