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The conceptualization of time in participants with high and low musical experience

Poster Session E - Monday, March 9, 2026, 2:30 – 4:30 pm PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballroom

Leah Downie¹ (), Aaron Kucyi¹, Alexa Tompary¹, Evangelia G. Chrysikou¹; ¹Drexel University

Time is a dynamic and adaptive framework, integral to human cognition. Research shows that time perception and production rely on a flexible, experience-dependent network of brain regions influenced by a feedback loop between sensory and motor systems. Athletes and musicians, through repeated sensorimotor training, often demonstrate enhanced timing abilities, suggesting that sensorimotor training may enhance temporal perception. Although studies have explored components of the sensorimotor loop and time, there is a need to examine how musical experience and rhythm may shape the perception of time. Based on the current literature on the conceptualization and perception of time, this study aims to investigate time perception among participants with high and low musical experience. Participants complete a temporal reproduction task alongside questionnaires assessing interoceptive awareness, motor inhibition, and individual differences in time perception. We hypothesize that those with high musical experience may reproduce time intervals more accurately and may perceive time rhythmically. The findings from this study may offer insights into how musical experience and other potential factors may shape time perception and cognitive processes that involve internal timekeeping.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Other