ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the main methods and findings in the field of psychophysics of human timing. Furthermore, two theoretical views of human timing are proposed. It has been shown that, for temporal intervals below 1 s, the Weber fraction generally decreases with longer interval durations. A generalized form of Weber’s law is often reported to hold for the temporal domain and, thus, supports the notion of a single timing mechanism underlying temporal processing. On the other hand, a series of behavioural and pharmacopsychological studies is presented that suggests the presence of two different timing mechanisms for temporal processing. One mechanism, involved in processing of very brief durations, appears to be located at a subcortical level, while the other mechanism, involved in processing of longer intervals (>1 s), is based on memory processes. KEYWORDS: Time estimation; Time perception; Psychophysical methods; Timing mechanisms
This chapter reviews major recent findings in the field of human temporal information processing. After providing the reader with an overview of the methods for addressing the problem of temporal processing, several studies are reviewed, in order to compare the relative accuracy for estimating short and long time intervals.
