[P3] Poster: Day 3

[P3-27] Indifference Interval and Central Tendency in Temporal Reproduction: A Comparative Study of Auditory and Visual Modalities

*Kristýna Malenínská¹, Veronika Rudolfová^1,2, Kateřina Dorflová^1,3, Tereza Nekovářová^1,2 (1. National Institute of Mental Health, Topolová 748, 250 67, Klecany (Czech Republic), 2. Faculty of Science, Charles University, Department of Zoology, Viničná 7, Prague (Czech Republic), 3. Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Ruská 87, Prague (Czech Republic))

Keywords:

indifference interval,auditory stimuli,visual stimuli,reproduction

Temporal processing is influenced not only by objective stimuli duration but also by factors such as stimulus modality and contextual parameters. Auditory stimuli are often perceived as longer and reproduced more accurately than visual ones, possibly due to differences in pacemaker rate or attentional mechanisms. Combined with the tendency to overestimate short durations and underestimate long ones, these modality-driven distortions have prompted researchers to investigate where subjective timing is most accurate within the tested range. This gives rise to the theory of indifference interval—the duration that is reproduced most accurately. Some theories suggest this point is constant (2–3 s), while others link it to the geometric mean of the tested range (central tendency), as per Vierordt’s law.We examined the effects of stimulus modality and presentation order on time reproduction using intervals from 1.6 to 15 seconds. Participants were assigned to two versions of the task, with one group starting with auditory stimuli and the other with visual stimuli. This design allowed us to compare performance across modalities and assess the role of block order.Our results align more closely with the idea of a constant indifference interval around 2–3 seconds than with predictions based on the geometric mean. Across all conditions, longer intervals (5–15 s) were systematically underestimated. In the auditory modality, shorter durations (1.6–3.2 s) were moderately overestimated, while in the visual modality, short intervals were more accurately reproduced or slightly underestimated. The highest accuracy occurred near 3.2 s, favoring the idea of a fixed indifference interval rather than one based on the geometric mean (~4.9 s).These findings support the view that internal timing relies on a stable temporal reference and that modality-specific timing characteristics are robust, even when the order of presentation is reversed.This work was supported by the Johannes Amos Comenius Programme (OP JAK), project reg. no. CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008715 and by the grant from the Ministry of Health Czech Republic (no. NU 22-04-00526).