A spatial-attentional mechanism underlies action-related distortions of time judgment.

ABSTRACT: Temporal binding has been understood as an illusion in timing judgment. When an action triggers an outcome (e.g. a sound) after a brief delay, the action is reported to occur later than if the outcome does not occur, and the outcome is reported to occur earlier than a similar outcome not caused by an action. We show here that an attention mechanism underlies the seeming illusion of timing judgment. In one method, participants watch a rotating clock hand and report event times by noting the clock hand position when the event occurs. We find that visual spatial attention is critically involved in shaping event time reports made in this way. This occurs because action and outcome events result in shifts of attention around the clock rim, thereby biasing the perceived location of the clock han

SUBMITTER: Cao L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10942542 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature