HOW STABLE IS THE STIMULUS MAGNITUDE EFFECT ON PERCEIVED DURATION?

In the present study, temporal reproduction was used to further elucidate the effect of stimulus magnitude on perceived duration. More specifically, we investigated split-half and test-retest reliabilities of perceived duration as obtained by the temporal reproduction task as well as the effect of stimulus magnitude on perceived duration. For this purpose, 36 participants reproduced the duration of visual stimuli presented for 800, 1000, and 1200 msec, respectively, varying in non-temporal stimulus magnitude. There were two experimental sessions separated by a one-week test-retest interval. A statistically significant main effect of stimulus magnitude on perceived duration could be established with larger stimuli being perceived as longer than smaller ones. As indicated by split-half and test-retest coefficients, perceived durations proved to be highly reliable. Only rather low test-retest coefficients, however, could be demonstrated for the effect of stimulus magnitude on perceived duration indicating poor stability for this latter effect. Several studies provided empirical evidence for a positive relationship between perceived duration and nontemporal stimulus magnitude. For instance, the perceived duration of visually presented stimuli becomes longer with increasing stimulus magnitude such as size o