Abstract
We quantitatively reviewed human sex differences in the magnitude and variability of duration judgments. Data from 4,794 females and 4,688 males yielded 87 effect size estimates of magnitude and 28 of variability. The overall sex difference in duration judgment magnitude was small but statistically significant. It was moderated by whether study participants knew in advance (prospective paradigm) or only later (retrospective paradigm) that they would be required to judge duration. Although prospective judgments showed no overall sex effect, some levels of moderator variables showed a small but statistically significant effect. Retrospective judgments showed a larger subjective-to-objective duration ratio for females than for males, and several variables moderated this effect. Females’ judgments also showed more intersubject variability than did males’ judgments. Relative to males, females sustain attention to time more in the prospective paradigm and have better episodic memory in the retrospective paradigm.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
Refereces
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesAdkins, C. J. (1972). Verbal estimations of time at four spatial distances.Perceptual & Motor Skills,35, 411–418.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesAllen, D. A. (1980). Filling time versus affective response to the activity that fills the time: Independent effects on time judgment?Perceptual & Motor Skills,51, 723–727.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesAntick, J. R., &Schandler, S. L. (1993). An exploration of the interaction between variation in wavelength and time perception.Perceptual & Motor Skills,76, 987–994.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesAxel, R. (1924). Estimation of time.Archives of Psychology,74, 1–77.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesBaldwin, R. O., Thor, D. H., &Wright, D. E. (1966). Sex differences in the sense of time: Failure to replicate a 1904 study.Perceptual & Motor Skills,22, 398.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesBarocas, H. A. (1971). Temporal orientation, human movement responses and time estimation.Journal of Personality Assessment,35, 315–319.
Becker, G. (1996). Bias in the assessment of gender differences [Comment].American Psychologist,51, 154–155.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesBell, C. R., &Watts, A. N. (1966). Personality and judgements of temporal intervals.British Journal of Psychology,57, 155–159.
Bindra, D., &Waksberg, H. (1956). Methods and terminology in studies of time estimation.Psychological Bulletin,53, 155–159.
Block, R. A. (1978). Remembered duration: Effects of event and sequence complexity.Memory & Cognition,6, 320–326.
Block, R. A. (1990). Models of psychological time. In R. A. Block (Ed.),Cognitive models of psychological time (pp. 1–35). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Block, R. A., &Eisler, H. (2000).The compleat bibliography on the psychology of time, 1839–1999 [Machine-readable data file]. Bozeman, MT: Department of Psychology, Montana State University [Producer and distributor].
Block, R. A., &Zakay, D. (1997). Prospective and retrospective duration judgments: A meta-analytic review.Psychonomic Bulletin & Review,4, 184–197.
Block, R. A., & Zakay, D. (in press). Psychological time at the millennium: Some past, present, future, and interdisciplinary issues. In M. P. Soulsby & J. T. Fraser (Eds.),Time: Perspectives at the millennium (The study of time X). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
Block, R. A., Zakay, D., &Hancock, P. A. (1998). Human aging and duration judgments: A meta-analytic review.Psychology & Aging,13, 584–596.
Block, R. A., Zakay, D., &Hancock, P. A. (1999). Developmental changes in human duration judgments: A meta-analytic review.Developmental Review,19, 183–211.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesBobko, D. J., Bobko, P., &Davis, M. A. (1986). Effect of visual display scale on duration estimates.Human Factors,28, 153–158.
Carlson, V. R., &Feinberg, I. (1970). Time judgment as a function of method, practice, and sex.Journal of Experimental Psychology,85, 171–180.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesCollett, B. A. (1974). Variation in body temperature, perceived duration and perceived personal space.International Journal of Nursing Studies,11, 47–60.
Cooper, H. M. (1989).Integrating research: A guide for literature reviews (2nd ed.). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesCupchik, G. C., &Gebotys, R. J. (1988). The experience of time, pleasure, and interest during aesthetic episodes.Empirical Studies of the Arts,6, 1–12.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesDavidson, W. B., &House, W. J. (1978). Influence of reflectionimpulsivity and cognitive style on time estimation under different ambient conditions.Perceptual & Motor Skills,46, 1083–1091.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesDelay, E. R., &Richardson, M. A. (1981). Time estimation in humans: Effects of ambient illumination and sex.Perceptual & Motor Skills,53, 747–750.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesDinges, N. G., Tollefson, G., Parks, G. A., &Hollenbeck, A. R. (1978). Anticipated reward and time estimation in young Navajo children.Perceptual & Motor Skills,47, 1011–1014.
Doob, L. W. (1971).Patterning of time. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesDubey, R. S. (1978). Effect of personal factors on the estimation of a short-filled time-interval of ten minutes.Indian Psychological Review,16, 29–35.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesDubey, R. S. (1986). Effect of complexity, familiarity, anxiety, and sex on the estimation of a series of five short-filled time-intervals.Indian Journal of Behaviour,10, 22–31.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesDubey, R. S., &Sharma, S. C. (1978). The effect of manifest anxiety on time-estimation.Journal of Psychological Researches,22, 153–164.
Eagly, A. H., Ashmore, R. D., Makhijani, M. G., &Longo, L. C. (1991). What is beautiful is good, but ...: A meta-analytic review of research on the physical attractiveness stereotype.Psychological Bulletin,110, 109–128.
mindicate studies included in the meta-analysesEisler, A. D. (1995). Cross-cultural differences in time perception: Comparison of African immigrants and native Swedes. In G. Neely (Ed.),Perception and psychophysics in theory and application (pp. 137–145). Stockholm: Stockholm University.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesEisler, A. D., &Eisler, H. (1994). Subjective time scaling: Influence of age, gender, and type A and type B behavior.Chronobiologia,21, 185–200.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesEisler, H., &Eisler, A. D. (1992). Time perception: Effects of sex and sound intensity on scales of subjective duration.Scandinavian Journal of Psychology,33, 339–358.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesFedotchev, A. I. (1984). [The perception, reproduction, and estimation of time in school children].Voprosy Psikhologii,1, 80–86.
Feingold, A. (1992). Sex differences in variability in intellectual abilities: A new look at an old controversy.Review of Educational Research,62, 61–84.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesFiler, R. J., &Meals, D. W. (1949). The effect of motivating conditions on the estimation of time.Journal of Experimental Psychology,39, 327–331.
Foy, M. R., Xu, J., Xie, X., Brinton, R. D., Thompson, R. F., &Berger, T. W. (1999). 17beta-estradiol enhances NMDA receptormediated EPSPs and long-term potentiation.Journal of Neurophysiology,81, 925–929.
Fraisse, P. (1998).Time perception. In The new encyclopaedia Britannica (15th ed., Vol. 25, pp. 494–496). Chicago: Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Frankenhaeuser, M. (1959).Estimation of time: An experimental study. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesGilbert, J. A. (1894). Researches on the mental and physical development of school-children.Studies From the Yale Psychology Laboratory,3, 40–100.
Gilpin, A. R. (1993). A program to test equality of two or more coefficients of variation.Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers,25, 65–66.
Guilford, J. P. (1936).Psychometric methods. New York: McGraw-Hill.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesGulliksen, H. (1927). The influence of occupation upon the perception of time.Journal of Experimental Psychology,10, 52–59.
Halpern, D. F. (1997). Sex differences in intelligence: Implications for education.American Psychologist,52, 1091–1102.
Halpern, D. F. (2000).Sex differences in cognitive abilities (3rd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Hancock, P. A. (1993). Body temperature influence on time perception.Journal of General Psychology,120, 197–216.
Hancock, P. A. (1999).Gaia and Chronos: Sex differences in the fourth cognitive dimension (Tech. Rep. No. 99-01). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota, Human Factors Research Laboratory.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesHancock, P. A., Arthur, E. J., Chrysler, S. T., &Lee, J. (1994). The effects of sex, target duration, and illumination on the production of time intervals.Acta Psychologica,86, 57–67.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesHancock, P. A., &Manser, M. P. (1997). Time to contact: More than tau alone.Ecological Psychology,9, 265–297.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesHancock, P. A., Vercruyssen, M., &Rodenburg, G. J. (1992). The effect of gender and time-of-day on time perception and mental workload.Current Psychology: Research & Reviews,11, 203–225.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesHawkins, N. E., &Meyer, M. E. (1965). Time perception of short intervals during finished, unfinished and empty task situations.Psychonomic Science,3, 473.
Hedges, L. V. (1981). Distribution theory for Glass’s estimator of effect size and related estimators.Journal of Educational Statistics,6, 107–128.
Hedges, L. V. (1982a). Fitting categorical models to effect sizes from a series of experiments.Journal of Educational Statistics,7, 119–137.
Hedges, L. V. (1982b). Fitting continuous models to effect size data.Journal of Educational Statistics,7, 245–270.
Hedges, L. V., &Nowell, A. (1995). Sex differences in mental scores, variability, and numbers of high-scoring individuals.Science,269, 41–45.
Hedges, L. V., &Olkin, I. (1985).Statistical methods for meta-analysis. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
Herlitz, A., Airaksinen, E., &Nordstroem, E. (1999). Sex differences in episodic memory: The impact of verbal and visuospatial ability.Neuropsychology,13, 590–597.
Herlitz, A., Nilsson, L.-G., &Bäckman, L. (1997). Gender differences in episodic memory.Memory & Cognition,25, 801–811.
Hicks, R. E. (1992). Prospective and retrospective judgments of time: A neurobehavioral analysis. In F. Macar, V. Pouthas, & W. J. Friedman (Ed.),Time, action and cognition: Towards bridging the gap (pp. 97–108). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesHicks, R. E., Allen, D. A., &Mayo, J. P. (1984). A developmental study of temporal duration judgments.Journal of Genetic Psychology,144, 31–38.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesHicks, R. E., Miller, G. W., &Kinsbourne, M. (1976). Prospective and retrospective judgments of time as a function of amount of information processed.American Journal of Psychology,89, 719–730.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesHornstein, A. D., &Rotter, G. S. (1969). Research methodology in temporal perception.Journal of Experimental Psychology,79, 561–564.
Johnson, B. T. (1989).DSTAT: Software for the meta-analytic review of research literatures [Documentation and computer software]. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Johnson, B. T. (1993).DSTAT 1.10: Software for the meta-analytic review of research literatures [Documentation and computer software]. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Johnson, B. T., &Turco, R. M. (1992). The value of goodness-of-fit indices in meta-analysis: A comment on Hall and Rosenthal.Communication Monographs,59, 388–396.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesKellaris, J. J., &Altsech, M. B. (1992). The experience of time as a function of musical loudness and gender of listener.Advances in Consumer Research,19, 725–729.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesKellaris, J. J., &Mantel, S. P. (1994). The influence of mood and gender on consumers’ time perceptions.Advances in Consumer Research,21, 514–518.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesKirkcaldy, B. D. (1984). Individual differences in time estimation.International Journal of Sport Psychology,15, 11–24.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesKline, D. W., &Burdick, D. C. (1980). Metronome pacing and age: The effect of irrelevant stimuli.Experimental Aging Research,6, 393–398.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesKline, D. W., Holleran, L., &Orme-Rogers, C. (1980). The estimation of short time intervals as a function of age and metronome pacing.International Journal of Aging & Human Development,11, 127–134.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesKrishna, K. P., &Sinha, J. K. (1974). Personality adjustment and time perception in normal adolescents.Indian Journal of Applied Psychology,11, 24–27.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesKurz, R. B., Cohen, R., &Starzynski, S. (1965). Rorschach correlates of time estimation.Journal of Consulting Psychology,29, 379–382.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesLandaeta, F. S., Saavedra, M. A., &Simicic, V. Y. (1981). La percepción del tiempo y su relación con la edad [Time perception and its relation to age].Revista Chilena de Psicología,4, 35–41.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesLevitt, E. E. (1983). Estimating the duration of sexual behavior: A laboratory analog study.Archives of Sexual Behavior,12, 329–335.
Linn, M. C., &Petersen, A. C. (1985). Emergence and characterization of sex differences in spatial ability: A meta-analysis.Child Development,56, 1479–1498.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesLoftus, E. F., Schooler, J. W., Boone, S. M., &Kline, D. (1987). Time went by so slowly: Overestimation of event duration by males and females.Applied Cognitive Psychology,1, 3–13.
Maccoby, E. E., &Jacklin, C. N. (1974).The psychology of sex differences. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesMacDougall, R. (1904). Sex differences in the sense of time.Science,19, 707–708.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesMartin, G. A., Shumate, M., &Frauenfelder, K. (1981). Experience of duration as a function of number of responses, task difficulty, and sex.Perceptual & Motor Skills,53, 139–145.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesMatsuda, F. (1965a). [Development of time estimation: I. Effects of degree of unity in verbal auditory stimulus].Japanese Journal of Psychology,36, 169–177.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesMatsuda, F. (1965b). [Development of time estimation: II. Effects of frequency of sounds given during standard time].Japanese Journal of Psychology,36, 285–294.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesMatsuda, F. (1967). [Development of time estimation: III. Effects of frequency of sounds given during standard time and reproduced time].Japanese Journal of Psychology,37, 352–358.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesMatsuda, F., &Matsuda, M. (1974). Effects of frequency of intermittent stimuli on time estimation in children and in adults: I. Sounds and lights.Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient,17, 206–212.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesMontare, A. (1985). Learning effects of knowledge of results upon time estimation.Perceptual & Motor Skills,60, 871–877.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesMontare, A. (1988). Further learning effects of knowledge of results upon time estimation.Perceptual & Motor Skills,66, 579–588.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesMontgomery, J. D. (1979). Variations in perception of short time intervals during menstrual cycle.Perceptual & Motor Skills,49, 940–942.
Morse, C. K. (1993). Does variability increase with age? An archival study of cognitive measures.Psychology & Aging,8, 156–164.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesMyers, G. C. (1916). Incidental perception.Journal of Experimental Psychology,1, 339–350.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesNail, P., Levy, L., Russin, R., &Crandall, R. (1981). Time estimation and obesity.Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin,7, 139–146.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesNewman, M. A. (1982). Time as an index of expanding consciousness with age.Nursing Research,31, 290–293.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesPollack, I. W., Ochberg, F. M., &Meyer, E. (1969). Social class and the subjective sense of time.Archives of General Psychiatry,21, 1–14.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesPolyukhov, A. M. (1989). Subjective time estimation in relation to age, health, and interhemispheric brain asymmetry.Zeitschrift für Gerontologie,22, 79–84.
Poynter, W. D. (1989). Judging the duration of time intervals: A process of remembering segments of experience. In I. Levin & D. Zakay (Eds.),Time and human cognition: A life-span perspective (pp. 305–331). Amsterdam: North-Holland.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesRammsayer, T. H. (1998). Temporal information processing in male and female subjects.Studia Psychologica,40, 149–164.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesRoeckelein, J. E. (1972). Sex differences in time estimation.Perceptual & Motor Skills,35, 859–862.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSamuelson, D. J., &Lindauer, M. S. (1976). Perception, evaluation, and performance in a neat and messy room by high and low sensation seekers.Environment & Behavior,8, 291–306.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSarason, I. G., &Stoops, R. (1978). Test anxiety and the passage of time.Journal of Consulting & Clinical Psychology,46, 102–109.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSchiffman, H. R., &Bobko, D. J. (1974). Effects of stimulus complexity on the perception of brief temporal intervals.Journal of Experimental Psychology,103, 156–159.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSeashore, C. E. (1899). Some psychological statistics.University of Iowa Studies in Psychology,2, 1–84.
Seth-Smith, M., Ashton, R., &McFarland, K. (1989). A dual-task study of sex differences in language reception and production.Cortex,25, 425–431.
Shafer, N. J., &Sullivan, J. A. (1986). A simulation study of a test for the equality of coefficients of variation.Communications in Statistics: Simulation & Computation,15, 681–695.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSimpson, M. L. (1982). Time-of-day effects in performance by seventh grade students on two measures of impulse control.Perceptual & Motor Skills,55, 115–121.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSmith, M. J. (1975). Changes in judgment of duration with different patterns of auditory information for individuals confined to bed.Nursing Research,24, 93–98.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSmith, M. J. (1979). Duration experience for bed-confined subjects: A replication and refinement.Nursing Research,28, 139–144.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSmith, M. J. (1984). Temporal experience and bed rest: Replication and refinement.Nursing Research,33, 298–302.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSmith, N. C., Jr. (1969). The effect on time estimation of increasing the complexity of a cognitive task.Journal of General Psychology,81, 231–235.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSrivastava, R., &Srivastava, B. (1978). Time estimation as a function of religion, sex and anxiety.Psychological Studies,23, 122–124.
Strang, H. R., Rust, J. O., &Garrison, G. (1973). Sex differences in short-term time estimation.Perceptual & Motor Skills,36, 1109–1110.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesSwift, E. J., &McGeoch, J. A. (1925). An experimental study of the perception of filled and empty time.Journal of Experimental Psychology,8, 240–249.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesTroutwine, R., &O’Neal, E. C. (1981). Volition, performance of a boring task and time estimation.Perceptual & Motor Skills,52, 865–866.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesWarner, D. J., &Block, R. A. (1984). Type A behavior and temporal judgment.Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society,22, 163–166.
Woodrow, H. (1951). Time perception. In S. S. Stevens (Ed.),Handbook of experimental psychology (pp. 1224–1236). New York: Wiley.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesYarmey, A. D. (1990). Accuracy and confidence of duration estimates following questions containing marked and unmarked modifiers.Journal of Applied Social Psychology,20, 1139–1149.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesYerkes, R. M., &Urban, F. M. (1906). Time-estimation in its relations to sex, age, and physiological rhythms.Harvard Psychological Studies,2, 405–430.
Zakay, D. (1990). The evasive art of subjective time measurement: Some methodological dilemmas. In R. A. Block (Ed.),Cognitive models of psychological time (pp. 59–84). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
mindicate studies included in the meta-analysesZakay, D. (1992a). On prospective time estimation, temporal relevanc and temporal uncertainty. In F. Macar, V. Pouthas, & W. J. Friedman (Eds.),Time, action and cognition: Towards bridging the gap (pp. 109–117). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesZakay, D. (1992b). The role of attention in children’s time perception.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology,54, 355–371.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesZakay, D. (1993). The roles of non-temporal information processing load and temporal expectations in children’s prospective time estimation.Acta Psychologica,84, 271–280.
indicate studies included in the meta-analysesZakay, D., &Fallach, E. (1984). Immediate and remote time estimation— A comparison.Acta Psychologica,57, 69–81.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Block, R.A., Hancock, P.A. & Zakay, D. Sex differences in duration judgments: A meta-analytic review. Memory & Cognition 28, 1333–1346 (2000). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211834
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03211834