Perceiving Time Differences When You Should Not: Applying the El Greco Fallacy to Hypnotic Time Distortions.

ABSTRACT: The way we experience and estimate time - subjective time - does not systematically correspond to objective time (the physical duration of an event). Many factors can influence subjective time and lead to mental dilation or compression of objective time. The emotional valence of stimuli or the levels of attention or expectancy are known to modulate subjective time even though objective time is constant. Hypnosis too is known to alter people's perception of time. However, it is not known whether hypnotic time distortions are intrinsic perceptual effects, based for example on the changing rate of an internal clock, or rather the result of a response to demand characteristics. Here we distinguished the theories using the logic of the El Greco fallacy. When participants initially had to compar

SUBMITTER: Martin JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5004410 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature