The perceived duration of numerical and verbal digits: The independent effects of digit value and covered area

Pichelmann, Stefan; Rammsayer, Thomas H. (2020). The perceived duration of numerical and verbal digits: The independent effects of digit value and covered area. Quarterly journal of experimental psychology, 73(8), pp. 1278-1289. Sage 10.1177/1747021820902373

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Numerical digits influence perceived duration; specifically, higher numerical digit values are perceived to be longer than lower ones that are presented for the same duration of time. To examine the functional relationship between digit value and perceived duration further, three models based on digit value and covered area were tested in two experiments. Unlike previous studies, each experiment utilised the entire digit range that spans from 1 to 9. In both experiments, digit values were presented visually during the target interval of a time reproduction task. Although numerical digits (i.e., Arabic digits) were used in Experiment 1, verbal digits (i.e., number words) were utilised in Experiment 2. In the case of the numerical digits, perceived duration increased as a function of digit value, while the effect of covered area failed to reach statistical significance. For verbal digits, however, the effects of both digit value and covered area were statistically significant. Overall, our findings support the existence of two distinct nontemporal processes that are involved in the modulation of perceived duration: one process that is based on a digit’s surface characteristics (i.e., covered area) and another process that is based on the digit’s numerical meaning (i.e., digit value).

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Personality Psychology, Differential Psychology and Diagnostics

UniBE Contributor:

Rammsayer, Thomas

Subjects:

100 Philosophy > 150 Psychology
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 370 Education

ISSN:

1747-0218

Publisher:

Sage

Language:

English

Submitter:

Karin Dubler

Date Deposited:

12 Apr 2021 16:36

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:48

Publisher DOI:

10.1177/1747021820902373

PubMed ID:

31931665

BORIS DOI:

10.48350/153435

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/153435

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