Time Estimation of a Secondary Event

Abstract

This study explored time estimation for a secondary event while the subjects were attentively engaged in a primary one. It also examined whether the perception of time is hemispherically lateralized as estimated by the dichotic listening technique. A tone of 500 Hz was delivered to either ear equally often while the subject was shadowing a recorded passage also presented to either ear. At the end of the tone, the subject estimated the tone's duration. There were three levels of shadowing demands, i.e., control, slow and fast, and four tonal durations, i.e., 6, 14, 27, 63 sec. Subjects tended to underestimate more the tonal duration when the primary task, i.e., shadowing the passage, was more demanding. No clearcut indication of hemispheric lateralization of temporal duration was found.