Presentation Information
[P2-19]Effects of attentional orienting on the production of temporal durations: an eye-tracking study
*Mariagrazia Ranzini1, Sebastiano Cinetto3, Sara Noacco1, Zaira Romeo2, Mario Bonato4, Marco Zorzi4, Giovanna Mioni1 (1. Department of General Psychology (DPG), Univ. of Padova (Italy), 2. Neuroscience Institute, National Research Council, Padova (Italy), 3. Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), Univ. of Padova (Italy), 4. Department of General Psychology (DPG) and Padova Neuroscience Center (PNC), Univ. of Padova (Italy))
Keywords:
Time Perception,Mental Time Line,Visuospatial Attention,Eye Movements,Eye-Tracking
Many studies indicate the existence of a spatial representation for temporal durations: shorter durations are represented on the left, and longer duration are represented on the right of the temporal continuum (Bonato, Zorzi, & Umiltà, 2012). Evidence exists indicating that time-space associations are mediated by mechanisms of visuospatial attention, which orient attention along the temporal continuum (e.g., Di Bono et al., 2012). In this study, we analysed gaze shifts during a temporal production task to test the hypothesis that attentional orienting through eye movements could predict production duration. Forty-six healthy adults participated in the study. At each trial, the participant listened to an alert stimulus, pressed the spacebar, and held it for a duration of choice. During the execution of the task, eye movements were recorded. The trial-by-trial analysis of eye movements in function of the produced duration revealed evidence for time-space associations. Importantly, upwards gaze shifts in the first 100ms after the trial onset predicted the subsequent time production magnitude, with larger shifts predicting longer durations. Differently from what expected, leftwards or rightwards gaze shifts were not related to duration. Furthermore, exploratory analyses also revealed that participants producing briefer productions took longer preparation times. Overall, these findings indicate that the spatialisation of time along the horizontal axis is not systematic, while it appears reliable along the vertical axis. Also, this study highlights the usefulness of the used duration task to assess and investigate links between space and time. These results will be further discussed in light of embodied and grounded cognition theories.
References
1. Bonato, M., Zorzi, M., & Umiltà, C. (2012). Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev., 36(10), 2257-2273.
2. Di Bono, M. G., Casarotti, M., Priftis, K., Gava, L., Umiltà, C., & Zorzi, M. (2012). J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform., 38(4), 838.
References
1. Bonato, M., Zorzi, M., & Umiltà, C. (2012). Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev., 36(10), 2257-2273.
2. Di Bono, M. G., Casarotti, M., Priftis, K., Gava, L., Umiltà, C., & Zorzi, M. (2012). J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Percept. Perform., 38(4), 838.