Summary
Experiments were carried out on the lengthening effect in sequential time estimations. It appeared that lengthening only occurred in the case of intuitive evaluation of an interval. Autocorrelation functions revealed that the estimation process may be described as a series of compensatory actions with respect to the last trial. It was assumed that the last estimate is more or less always experienced as too long or too short. In the resulting correction process the positive corrections reach higher mean values than the negative ones since the upper limit of the interval is not defined. In view of the negative autocorrelation in the last trial it was postulated that the correction process is not random, but is related to sequential response bias, i.e. too many alternations. Subsequently, several presentation and estimation modes were compared. The possibility that lengthening might result from trace decay of the standard stored in memory was doubtful since the phenomenon was also observed in the case of pure production on the basis of verbal instructions only. Apparently, it makes no difference whether a standard is presented or not. The distribution of the time estimates under various conditions revealed that the subject becomes more uncertain in proportion as the amount of external reference given increases, so that estimation process variables seem to be of greater importance than stimulus factors (standard presentation). It was assumed that the temporal memory could be described as a register in which only one event (the last) remains available and forms the subject's frame of reference. Since lengthening appeared to be connected with several cognitive variables of a general nature it was postulated that the effect is not only inherent in time estimation, but may be considered as a phenomenon occurring in repeated estimations of various stimuli as well. This assumption appeared to be correct, as analogous effects were observed in the case of repeated line drawing. It was shown that the increase of the time estimates could be influenced significantly by introducing different risk levels, i.e. the degree of lengthening is a function of the subject's decision criterion. Furthermore, there was some correlation between the compensatory actions and sequential response bias in a randomization task. It is concluded that the lengthening effect does not only show a general character, but that it might be described and explained adequately within the framework of the cognitive theory of time experience in which memory mechanisms, decision theory, and sequential response bias play a significant role.
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Vroon, P.A. The lengthening effect in sequential estimations of a short interval. Psychol. Forsch. 35, 263–276 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00424550
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00424550