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When How You Measure Time Matters

Poster Session D - Monday, March 9, 2026, 8:00 – 10:00 am PDT, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Kezhen Qi¹ (kezhenqi2028@u.northwestern.edu), Abigail Y. Liu¹, Khayla Santiago¹, Marcia Grabowecky¹, satoru suzuki¹; ¹Northwestern University

Research on human time perception has relied primarily on two paradigms to estimate perceived duration. In the comparison paradigm, observers judge whether a test interval is longer or shorter than a standard, allowing derivation of a point of subjective equality (PSE). In the reproduction paradigm, observers reproduce perceived duration by pressing and holding a response button. Although both paradigms are widely used to study temporal distortions, they have rarely been evaluated side-by-side using identical stimuli. There is an inconsistency in the literature concerning temporal dilation induced by dynamic, size-changing stimuli. Comparison paradigm studies have reported a strong asymmetry, with looming disks producing substantial dilation and receding disks producing weak or no dilation. In contrast, reproduction studies, including our under-review work, have reported comparable dilation for both looming and receding stimuli. In the present study, observers viewed identical looming, receding, and static disk stimuli and completed both comparison and reproduction tasks within the same experimental framework. In the comparison task, we failed to fully reproduce the previously reported looming–receding asymmetry, observing only modest differences between stimulus types. In the reproduction task, both looming and receding stimuli produced large and comparable temporal dilation relative to static controls, with substantially larger effect sizes (looming: d = 1.20; receding: d = 1.38) than those observed in the comparison task (looming: d = 0.43; receding: d = 0.18). These findings indicate that the magnitude and apparent symmetry of temporal dilation depend strongly on the measurement paradigm, suggesting differential contributions of perceptual and motor timing mechanisms.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Vision