Time . . . and How We Study It

This chapter surveys a number of the popular experimental designs used to study people’s perception (or estimation) of time. This includes descriptions of paradigms that present isolated pairs of time intervals for people to compare as well as experimental designs that require people to anticipate certain target onsets in various contexts. In this respect, it distinguishes between designs that require people to respond to time and those designs that require people to use time. Also discussed are paradigms that record driven rhythms in the form of cortical oscillations. Concepts of attending, anticipatory attending, and temporal expectancy are also introduced in this chapter.