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Activities can have substantial impacts on temporal experience. We investigated how the impact of being active develops dynamically over the course of long waiting times. Participants waited in a library building, either sitting passively or walking around actively, for between 60 and 100 minutes. Retrospectively, they reported how different aspects of their temporal experiences developed throughout their wait: duration judgments, passage of time judgments, and general awareness of time. Duration was estimated to be shorter in the passive than in the active condition throughout the wait. In an early phase, the passage of time felt slower and time awareness was felt to be higher in the passive condition. Yet, this difference was resolved over the course of the wait. We conclude that the effects of activity on temporal experiences decrease over longer waiting periods.

Objectives: We studied timed-based expectancy as well as general perceptual-motor speed in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Methods: In Experiment 1, 11 children with ASD and 11 typically developing children (TD) (6-13 years) completed a binary choice response task in which foreperiod duration predicted the response target's location with a probability of 0.8. In Experiment 2, we compared performance between 10 children with ASD (6-11 years) and 10 TD children by using a simple reaction time test. Results: Employing a binary forced choice task where the duration of a pre-target interval (800 or 1400 ms) probabilistically predicted the target, we found that children with ASD were sensitive to the temporal regularity, whereas TD children were not. Children with ASD were faster for expected combinations of interval and target location but they were also less accurate for those combinations. Results from an additional simple reaction time test indicate that the development of general perceptual-motor processes was delayed in children with ASD. However, the ability for children with ASD to form time-based expectancies was not correlated with their performance in the simple reaction time test. Conclusion: Children with ASD show significantly greater sensitivity towards time-based predictability than TD children. However, the development of general perceptual-motor processes was impaired in children with ASD.

In the present study, we examined the impact of the interaction of environmental and task-induced attentional focus on time perception, specifically awareness of the time flow. We tested 48 participants in either a natural or urban setting over three 25- to 35-min sessions. We manipulated the within-subjects factor task by means of two tasks--one requiring directed attention on the task itself, the other undirected attention on the environment--alongside a control condition with no specific task. We measured time awareness, passage of time judgments, felt time judgments, and estimated time as dependent variables. For time awareness, we found an interaction between environment and task: in the natural environment, only a task requiring directed attention reduced time awareness; whereas, in the urban environment, both tasks reduced time awareness compared to the control condition. The results suggest that natural environments increase time awareness unless we focus our attention on a task.

Environmental stimuli caused by actions (i.e., effects) are perceived earlier than stimuli not caused by actions. Thisphenomenon is termed intentional binding (IB), and serves as implicit measure of sense of agency. We investigated the influenceof effect delay and temporal predictability on IB, measured with the classic clock procedure as the bias to perceive the effectas temporally shifted towards the action. For short delays, IB increased with delay (Experiment 1: 200 ms, 250 ms, 300 ms)and this initial increase declined for longer delays (Experiment 2: 100 ms, 250 ms, 400 ms). These results extend previousfindings showing IB to decrease with increasing delays for delay ranges of 250 ms to 650 ms. Further, the indication that IB,that is, sense of agency, might be maximal for different delays depending on the specific characteristics and context of actionand effect, has important implications for human-machine interfaces.

System delays affect user performance and experience when interacting with computers. We investigated the effectsof different prediction relations between delay duration and response requirements on user performance. In one experiment,delay duration predicted, to different degrees (50 % vs. 75 % vs. 100 %), the following system response. Predictabilitysubstantially increased users’ response speed, while adaptation was highly flexible, between different prediction regimes. Ina second experiment, users’ responses predicted system delay duration. Compared to the first experiment, users’ responsespeed was moderately increased, while the adaptation was rather inflexible across different prediction regimes. In a thirdexperiment, we directly compared both types of predictability. The results confirmed a stronger and more flexible adaptationeffect when time predicted the system response, compared to when users’ responses predicted time. These findings haveimportant implications for scheduling data transmission rates across different users in internet-based parallel computing.

In an ever-accelerating world, experiences free of outcome expectancy and time pressure for the pursuit of intrinsic activities are increasingly rare. Such moments are described by the German term 'Muße'. This qualitative study focused on prototypical objects of contemporary Muße architecture. The aim was to investigate empirically how individuals experience such spaces via their ambient atmosphere using semi-structured interviews. By Grounded Theory Methodology, a typology of spatial experiences was developed. The analysis revealed specific and general experience patterns, as well as conducive architectural means. The results are interpreted in terms of theories of Muße, restoration, aesthetic absorption and time experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has shown that actions impair the visual perception of categorically action-consistent stimuli. On the other hand, actions can also facilitate the perception of spatially action-consistent stimuli. We suggest that motorvisual impairment is due to action planning processes, while motorvisual facilitation is due to action control mechanisms. This implies that because action planning is sensitive to modulations by cue-response mapping so should motorvisual impairment, while motorvisual facilitation should be insensitive to manipulations of cue-response mapping as is action control. We tested this prediction in three dual-task experiments. The impact of performing left and right key presses on the perception of unrelated, categorically or spatially consistent, stimuli was studied. As expected, we found motorvisual impairment for categorically consistent stimuli and motorvisual facilitation for spatially consistent stimuli. In all experiments, we compared congruent with incongruent cue-key mappings. Mapping manipulations affected motorvisual impairment, but not motorvisual facilitation. The results support our suggestion that motorvisual impairment is due to action planning, and motorvisual facilitation to action control. (Contains 5 figures and 1 footnote.)

Previous research on dual-tasks has shown that, under some circumstances, actions impair the perception of action-consistent stimuli, whereas, under other conditions, actions facilitate the perception of action-consistent stimuli. We propose a new model to reconcile these contrasting findings. The planning and control model (PCM) of motorvisual priming proposes that action planning binds categorical representations of action features so that their availability for perceptual processing is inhibited. Thus, the perception of categorically action-consistent stimuli is impaired during action planning. Movement control processes, on the other hand, integrate multi-sensory spatial information about the movement and, therefore, facilitate perceptual processing of spatially movement-consistent stimuli. We show that the PCM is consistent with a wider range of empirical data than previous models on motorvisual priming. Furthermore, the model yields previously untested empirical predictions. We also discuss how the PCM relates to motorvisual research paradigms other than dual-tasks. (Contains 2 figures.)