Temporal Perception

By : Lukman Nul Hakim

I. PROBLEM
How is the time estimation of examinee when they are presented with different duration of stimuli?

II. INTRODUCTION
ATTENTION
Morgan and King (1975) said that attention is focusing on certain aspects of current experience and neglecting others. Attention has a focus in which events are clearly perceived and a margin in which they are less clearly perceived.
On every second of our life our sense is receiving so many stimulus, and some times we perceive only some of them clearly. We perceive others less clearly, while the rest form a sort of hazy background in our awareness. This is another way of saying that we attend to only a few of the events taking place around us. So, attention is a basic factor in perception.
Attention divides our field of experience into a focus and a margin. The events that we perceive clearly are at the focus of experience. Because we attend to them, they stand out from the background. Other items are dimly perceived, we aware of their presence but only vaguely so. Imperceptibly shading off from the margin are still other items which are outside our field of attention and of which, for the moment anyway, we are not consciously aware.
When a person pays attention to something, the information coming in through the sensory channels is treated in different ways. Some of it is at the center of awareness. Other information is filtered out, or attenuated, so that the individual is hardly aware of it at all. From time to time attention may shift so that there is a new center of attention. It is these related processes of channel filtering and attention switching that are the main concern of the information processing theories of attention.

PROBLEMS IN ATTENTION.
1. Determiners of attention
2. Shifting and Fluctuation of Attention
3. Distraction
4. Divided attention
5. Span of attention

PERCEPTION
There are several ways in which the brain interprets the complex flow of information from the various senses and creates perceptual experiences that go far beyond what is sensed.
Morgan & King (1978)define perception as the awareness of objects, qualities, or events stimulating the sense organs ; also referring to a person’s experience of the world.
Perception refers to the way the world looks, sounds, feels, tastes or smells. Perception can be defined as whatever is experienced by a person.
Perception is experiencing meaningful patterns in the jumble of sensory information (Morris, CG, 1993).
There are two major theories of perception, first theory is constructive perception(also called the transactional position, ittelson & Cantril, 1954, and the computational position, ullman, 1980), and the second one is direct perception.
Constructive perception theory say that people construct perceptions by actively selecting stimuli and merging sensations with memory.
This theory based on the notion that during perception we form and test hypotheses regarding percepts based on both what we sense and what we know. Thus, perception is the combined effect of what comes in through our sensory wystem and what we have learned about the world through experience.
Direct perception theory said that perception consists of the direct acquisition of information from the environment. This theory believe that information in the stimuli is the important element in perception and that learning and cognition are unnecessary in perception.

PERCEPTUAL PROCESSES
According to Morgan & King (1975) there are many perceptual processes, such as:
1. Attention.
Attention is a basic factor in perception. Attention is characterized by a focus, or center, of awareness and a margin consisting o fitms that are perceived if at at all.
2. Form perception.
It refers to our awareness of shapes, patterns, and objects. Form perception is an active perceptual achievement. The perception of contours is basic in form perception ; contours mark off figure from ground. The pictures, words, and melody are perceived as the figure, while the wall, page and chords are the ground.
3. Perceptual Constancy.
It refers to the stability of our perceptual world despite great changes in the characteristics of the sensory input.
4. Movement perception
Movement perception can be divided into the study of real movement and apparent movement. When we perceive the physical movement of objects in the world, it is called real movement. Apparent movement is perceived movement without any movement of energy across a receptor surface.

PROCESSES IN PERCEPTION
Zimbardo and Ruch (1979) said that there are 5 processes Involved in perception :

1. Transduction. The reception os stimulus energy by receptors and the conversion of hat energy into slow potentials or generator potentials
2. Coding. The patterning of activity, in groups and systems of nerve cells, which represents attributes of the original stimulus energy
3. Processing. The selecting, comparing, and integrating of coded information
4. Subjective Experience. The sight, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch experience which make up our personal awareness
5. Behavior. Our actions which affect both the environment and our own perceptions.
LAW OF PERCEPTION
1. Law of proximity. According to this law, items which are close together in space or time tend to pe perceived as belonging together or forming an organized group.
2. Law of similarity. Items which are smilar are liking to be grouped as one.
3. Law of good figure. There is a tendency to organize things to make a balanced or symmetrical figure that includes all the parts.
4. Law of continuation. There is a tendency to perceive a line that starts in one way as continuing in the same way.
5. Law of closure. There is a tendency to organized the perceived world by filling in gaps in stimulation.

RESEARCH RELATED TO TIME PERCEPTION
Agarwal (1975) his study found that there was positive correlation between achievement scores and time perspective of five academic groups, showing that need achievement and perception of time are more related.
Gjone (1975) hypothesized that the success oriented subjects will perceive time differently than the avoidance oriented subjects. The result showed partial support of the hypothesis.
Harton (1936) showed that the people underestimated time when they succeeded and over estimated time when they failed.
Sattler (1965) investigated the effects of knowledge or lack of knowledge of a grade and achievement level on time estimations. Subjects were 54 college students distributed in 6 experimental groups. The result appeared that under conditions of stress, time is over estimated.
Singh (1966) found that there is no significant differen ces in time perception on sex differences. The research was conducted to 20 men and woman under high and low need tension conditions.
III. METHODS

HYPOTHESIS
Subject will have a more accurate estimation on shorter than on longer stimulation duration.

VARIABLES & CONTROLLING SECONDARY VARIABLES
a. Independent Variables (IV)
Two different duration of sound stimulus, they are 3 second and 6 second.
b. Dependent Variables (DV)
Time estimated by the subject.
c. Secondary Variables (SV)
Environmental variables : Illumination & Temperature
To anticipate the situation differences, the experiment on both condition will be conducted in the same room, so that we can assure that subject will get the same illumination, and temperature of the room (by functioning the same amount of fan) on both condition.

PRELIMINARIES
a. Subjects Preliminaries
Name : Heni Kent
Gender : Male
Age : 23
Educational background : MA (Prev)

b. Preliminary Set Up
Prepare the chronoscope, set the chair and table so thatconducive for the experiment.

APPARATUS
Chronoscope
Stopwatch
Paper
Pen

ACTUAL PROCEDURE
a. Rapport formation, a brief conversation was held with subject to make subject feel comfortable with the experimental situation.
b. Give the instruction.
c. Give the test one by one, until 40 tasks.
d. Ask subject to fill bio-data form.
e. Thanking the subject

INSTRUCTIONS
Here is instruction given to the subject :
“I will give you a sound and you have to estimate the time as to how long did you hear the sound. You will record your estimation of time as to how long did you hear the sound, you will record your estimation of time in this stopwatch. Before starting I will give you a ready signal. If you have understood then shall we start the experiment. If you face any problem you can ask me”.

IV. RESULT

Summary
3
X= 3-Skor
X
6
Y=6-Skor
Y
2,85
-0,15
9,85
5,78
-0,22
9,78
2,22
-0,78
9,22
6,16
0,16
10,16
2,66
-0,34
9,66
6,62
0,62
10,62
2,62
-0,38
9,62
6,73
0,73
10,73
3,58
0,58
10,58
6,48
0,48
10,48
3,58
0,58
10,58
6,11
0,11
10,11
2,6
-0,4
9,6
6,23
0,23
10,23
2,87
-0,13
9,87
6,34
0,34
10,34
2,64
-0,36
9,64
6,19
0,19
10,19
2,5
-0,5
9,5
6,58
0,58
10,58
3,1
0,1
10,1
5,96
-0,04
9,96
3,12
0,12
10,12
6,07
0,07
10,07
3,04
0,04
10,04
6,3
0,3
10,3
2,96
-0,04
9,96
6,18
0,18
10,18
2,86
-0,14
9,86
6,49
0,49
10,49
2,59
-0,41
9,59
6,38
0,38
10,38
2,92
-0,08
9,92
5,9
-0,1
9,9
2,69
-0,31
9,69
5,98
-0,02
9,98
2,88
-0,12
9,88
6,21
0,21
10,21
2,93
-0,07
9,93
6,34
0,34
10,34
2,76
-0,24
9,76
6,66
0,66
10,66
2,6
-0,4
9,6
6,66
0,66
10,66
2,69
-0,31
9,69
6,3
0,3
10,3
2,89
-0,11
9,89
6,57
0,57
10,57
3,49
0,49
10,49
5,95
-0,05
9,95
3,21
0,21
10,21
6,09
0,09
10,09
2,9
-0,1
9,9
6,29
0,29
10,29
2,97
-0,03
9,97
6,31
0,31
10,31
2,6
-0,4
9,6
6,27
0,27
10,27
2,29
-0,71
9,29
6,19
0,19
10,19
2,76
-0,24
9,76
6,59
0,59
10,59
2,49
-0,51
9,49
5,69
-0,31
9,69
2,68
-0,32
9,68
5,83
-0,17
9,83
2,7
-0,3
9,7
6,33
0,33
10,33
2,39
-0,61
9,39
6,18
0,18
10,18
2,58
-0,42
9,58
6,4
0,4
10,4
2,98
-0,02
9,98
6,21
0,21
10,21
2,68
-0,32
9,68
6,09
0,09
10,09
2,6
-0,4
9,6
5,78
-0,22
9,78
3,16
0,16
10,16
6,16
0,16
10,16
TOTAL
392,63
TOTAL
409,58
MEAN
9,81575
MEAN
10,2395
T TEST BY EXCEL
2,016E-09

CALCULATION
t calculation t = 2.016
t table .05 = 1.960

Result = t calc > t table = significantly difference

INTROSPECTIVE REPORT
“It was a very boring experiment, I tried so hard to estimate the time as precise as possible, but it’s very hard, because there are time when we are loosing our concentration.”

CONCLUSION
The finding of this experiment support the hypothesis that subject will have a more accurate estimation on shorter than on longer stimulation duration, in fact that the difference is significant.

V. DISCUSSION

The purpose of the experiment was to see the time estimation of examinee when they are presented with different duration of stimuli?
The hypothesis was that subject will have a more accurate estimation on shorter than on longer stimulation of duration.
The result shown that the mean for the 3 second duration is 2.815 meanwhile for the 6 second duration is 6.239.
This finding support the previous experiment conducted by Dockering, Satler, and Munsterberg. Dockering (1961) found that consistancy in judgement decreased as the time interval for stimulus presentation increased. Meanwhile Satller (1965) In his study found that under condition of stress we overestimates time. And Munsterberg study say that shorter duration of time we can judge more quickly.