Distortions to the passage of time for annual events: Exploring why Christmas and Ramadan feel like they come around more quickly each year.

BACKGROUND: Commonly heard statements such as "Christmas comes around more quickly each year" suggest that the passage of time between annual events can become distorted, leading to the sensation of time passing more quickly than normal. At present however, it is unclear how prevalent such beliefs are and, what factors are predictive of it. AIM: To explore the prevalence of beliefs that annual events such as Christmas (Study 1 UK sample) and Ramadan (Study 2 Iraqi sample) feel like they come around more quickly each year. To establish the association between distortions to the passage of time between annual events and emotional wellbeing, event specific enjoyment, memory function and self-reported attention to time. METHODS: Participants completed an online questionnaire exploring their subjective experience of time in relation to Christmas and Ramadan. In addition, measures of attention to time, memory function, quality of life and event specific emotion were also taken. FINDINGS: There was widespread agreement that Christmas and Ramadan appeared to come around more quickly each year. In both countries, this belief was associated with greater prospective memory errors, greater attention to time and greater enjoyment of the event. Furthermore, in the UK greater belief that Christmas comes around more quickly was associated with lower social quality of life and in Iraq, greater belief that Ramadan comes around more quickly each year was associated with lower age and female gender. CONCLUSIONS: Distortions to the passage of time for annual events are widespread, occur across multiple cultures and are consistently predicted by prospective function, event enjoyment and attention to time. The absence of an association between older age (above 55 years) and a faster passage of time suggests that caution should be taken when concluding that time passes more quickly with increasing age.

Prefrontal cortex activity and functional organisation in dual-task ocular pursuit is affected by concurrent upper limb movement.

Tracking a moving object with the eyes seems like a simple task but involves areas of prefrontal cortex (PFC) associated with attention, working memory and prediction. Increasing the demand on these processes with secondary tasks can affect eye movements and/or perceptual judgments. This is particularly evident in chronic or acute neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or mild traumatic brain injury. Here, we combined near infrared spectroscopy and video-oculography to examine the effects of concurrent upper limb movement, which provides additional afference and efference that facilitates tracking of a moving object, in a novel dual-task pursuit protocol. We confirmed the expected effects on judgement accuracy in the primary and secondary tasks, as well as a reduction in eye velocity when the moving object was occluded. Although there was limited evidence of oculo-manual facilitation on behavioural measures, performing concurrent upper limb movement did result in lower activity in left medial PFC, as well as a change in PFC network organisation, which was shown by Graph analysis to be locally and globally more efficient. These findings extend upon previous work by showing how PFC is functionally organised to support eye-hand coordination when task demands more closely replicate daily activities.

Trait impulsivity influences behavioural and physiological responses to threat in a virtual environment.

Trait impulsivity represents a tendency to take action without forethought or consideration of consequences. This trait is multifaceted and can be decomposed into attentional, motor and non-planning subtypes of impulsivity. The purpose of the current study was to investigate how subtypes of trait impulsivity responded to different degrees of threat within room-scale virtual reality (VR) with respect to behaviour and level of physiological activation. Thirty-four participants were required to negotiate a virtual environment (VE) where they walked at height with the continuous threat of a virtual 'fall.' Behavioural measures related to the speed of movement, interaction frequency and risk were collected. Participants also wore ambulatory sensors to collect data from electrocardiogram (ECG) and electrodermal activity (EDA). Our results indicated that participants who scored highly on non-planning impulsivity exhibited riskier behaviour and higher skin conductance level (SCL). Participants with higher motor impulsivity interacted with more objects in the VE when threat was high, they also exhibited contradictory indicators of physiological activation. Attentional impulsivity was associated with a greater number of falls across the VE. The results demonstrate that subtypes of trait impulsivity respond to threats via different patterns of behaviour and levels of physiological activation, reinforcing the multifaceted nature of the trait.

Distortions to the passage of time during chronic pain: A mixed method study.

BACKGROUND: A core aspect of the clinical assessment of pain is establishing how long pain has been present for. The reported length of pain can therefore influence diagnosis and treatment. Despite this, little is known about how chronic pain affects the passage of time. METHODS: A mixed-methods cross-sectional study examined experiences of the passage of time in people identifying as living with chronic pain (n = 398). RESULTS: Experiencing chronic pain slows the passage of time for most people. Greater pain intensity, rumination about pain, helplessness and identifying as disabled were associated with a greater slowing of the passage of time. Thematic analysis of responses to open-ended questions suggested that a slowing of time during pain was associated with (1) pain intrusion preventing activities which would otherwise enable time to pass quickly, (2) increased attention to time and (3) as sense that in retrospect, time throughout life was 'lost' to chronic pain. CONCLUSION: Chronic pain causes widespread distortion to the passage of time. The slowing of time during pain means that periods of pain feel subjectively longer than periods without, exacerbating patient distress. SIGNIFICANCE: This study examined how chronic pain impacts on the experience of time. Chronic pain substantially slowed the passage of time for most people, subjectively lengthening the period of time that pain lasted for, exacerbating distress. Given the importance of time processing in clinical assessments of pain, medication adherence and therapeutic interventions, these findings underscore the importance of raising awareness about altered temporal processing in patients and clinicians.

A cross-sectional analysis of the predictors of COVID-19 vaccine uptake and vaccine hesitancy in Iraq.

BACKGROUND: Vaccine hesitancy poses a significant risk to global recovery from COVID-19. To date however, there is little research exploring the psychological factors associated with vaccine acceptability and hesitancy in Iraq. AIM: To explore attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccination in Iraq. To establish the predictors of vaccine uptake and vaccine hesitancy in an Iraqi population. METHODS: Using a cross-sectional design, 7,778 participants completed an online questionnaire exploring their vaccination status, likelihood of infection, perceived severity infection, benefits of vaccine, barriers to vaccine, anticipated regret, subjective norms, and trust in government. FINDINGS: Vaccination rates increased with age and were greater in males, those who were married, divorced or widowed, those with children and those with underlying conditions. Vaccine hesitancy was widespread with 61.40% of unvaccinated individuals reported an unwillingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. In unvaccinated groups, vaccine hesitancy was associated with lower trust in the government, more negative social norms, greater perceived barriers to vaccination and reduced perceived benefits. CONCLUSIONS: There is significant COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Iraq. Public health institutions should be aware of the influence of demographic factors, as well as personal beliefs and social norms, on individuals' decisions to vaccinate. Public health messaging should therefore aim to be tailored to address the concerns of citizens.

How long was it for you? Memories of the duration of the UK covid-19 lockdown.

The covid-19 global pandemic has significantly impacted on the daily lives of people across the world. One consequence of this has been significant distortion to the speed at which time feels like it is passing during day-to-day life in comparison with prior to the pandemic. The current study sought to further understanding of the impact of the pandemic on temporal experience by exploring individual differences in the subjective length of the first 12 months of the pandemic in the UK. Using an online questionnaire, subjective judgments of the perceived length of the preceding 12 months were taken. In addition, measures of affect, task load and satisfaction with current levels of social interaction, physical activity, conformity with regulations, perceived covid risk and shielding status were taken. The results showed that only 9% of participants reported that the preceding 12 months felt like 12 months. The majority of participants (57%) reported that it felt like the pandemic had lasted for longer than 12 months, and this feeling was stronger for those who indicated greater levels of depression and anxiety, reduced physical activity, reduced satisfaction with social interaction and being advised to shield.

The psychophysiological mechanisms of real-world time experience.

Our sense of time is fallible, often resulting in the sensation of time flying by quickly or dragging slowly. It has been suggested that changes in sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity may influence the perceived passage of time, however this proposition has never been tested during real-world temporal experience. The current study directly tested the relationship between the passage of time and SNS-PNS activity in the real-world. Sixty-seven participants completed a normal day's activities whilst wearing sensors to capture electrocardiography (ECG), electrodermal activity (EDA) and movement. They also provided hourly rating of the subjective speed at which time was passing. Results revealed that greater SNS activity (e.g., increased heart rate, frequency of phasic skin conductance response) was associated with time passing more quickly. PNS activity was not related to time experience. Whilst the findings support previous suggestions that changes in physiological arousal are associated with distortions to the passage of time, the effects are small and other factors are likely to contribute to real-world temporal experience.

The passage of time in Iraq during the covid-19 pandemic.

The covid-19 global pandemic has influenced the day-to-day lives of people across the world. One consequence of this has been significant distortion to the subjective speed at which people feel like time is passing. To date, temporal distortions during covid-19 have mainly been studied in Europe. The current study therefore sought to explore experiences of the passage of time in Iraq. An online questionnaire was used to explore the passage of time during the day, week and the 11 months since the first period of covid-19 restrictions were imposed in Iraq. The questionnaire also measured affective and demographic factors, and task-load. The results showed that distortions to the passage of time were widespread in Iraq. Participants consistently reported a slowing of the passage of time for the day and the week during the pandemic in comparison to normal (i.e. before the pandemic). Participants also reported that it felt like longer than 11-months since the first lockdown began. The passage of time during the day and week were not predicted by any demographic, affective or task-load measures taken in the study. The perceived length of time since the first lockdown was however predicted by stress and change of life due to covid, with greater stress and greater change of life being associated with greater subjective lengthening of the pandemic. The findings indicate that whilst distortions to the passage of time during covid-19 appear to be a global phenomenon, the factors which predict temporal experience during the pandemic differ between countries and cultures.

Experiences of distortions to the passage of time during the Argentinian Covid-19 pandemic.

The Coronavirus-19 global pandemic has forced many governments around the world to enforce "lockdowns" to curtail the spread of the virus. Studies conducted in the UK, France, Italy and Brazil have demonstrated that one consequence of these lockdowns is significant distortion to the speed of the passage of time. The current study sought to establish how the passage of time was experienced during the Argentinian lockdown. An online questionnaire was used to measure passage of time judgments for the day and the week, physical activity, satisfaction with social interaction, the extent to which daily routines had changed due to covid and demographic data. The results show that distortions to the passage of time were widely experienced during the lockdown in Argentina. There was a tendency for participants to report time passing more quickly than normal. A faster passage of time was associated with being a woman, of younger age and more physically active. A slower passage of time was therefore associated with being a man, of older age and less physically active. The results indicate that whilst distortions to the passage of time during the covid-19 crisis appear to be a global phenomenon, cross-cultural differences are apparent in the factors which influence temporal experience.

The effect of pain on reference memory for duration.

Previous research has consistently reported that pain related stimuli are perceived as lasting longer than non-pain related ones, suggesting that pain lengthens subjective time. However, to date, the investigation has been limited to the immediate effects of pain on time perception. The current study aims to investigate whether pain affects how a duration is recalled after a period of delay. In two experiments, participants were asked to complete four temporal generalisation tasks, where they were required first to remember the duration of a standard tone (learning phase) and then to compare the standard duration to a series of comparison durations (testing phase). Using a 2 × 2 design, the four tasks differed in terms of whether participants were exposed to a painful or non-painful stimulus during the learning phase, and whether the testing phase started immediately or 15 min after the learning phase. Participants were exposed to low pain in Experiment 1 and high pain in Experiment 2. Two possible results were expected: pain could decrease temporal accuracy, because pain disrupts cognitive processes required for accurate timing, or pain could increase temporal accuracy, because pain facilitates memory consolidation. Contrary to expectations, results from both Experiments indicated that participants' temporal performances were similar in the pain and no-pain conditions when testing occurred 15 min after the learning phase. Findings, therefore, suggest that pain neither disrupts nor enhances long-term memory representations of duration.

Distortions to the passage of time during England's second national lockdown: A role for depression.

In attempts to control the spread of the Covid-19 virus, many governments have resorted to imposing national lockdowns on their citizens. Previous research has demonstrated the passage of time becomes distorted for many people during these lockdowns. To date, research has only examined how time was experienced early in initial lockdowns. The current study examined whether distortions to the passage of time were also present later into the global pandemic. An online questionnaire was used to collect passage of time judgments for the day, week and 8 month period since the first UK lockdown. In addition, measures of affect, social satisfaction, task-load, compliance and health status were also recorded. The results show that over 80% of people reported experiencing distortion to the passage of time during the second English lockdown in comparison with normal. Depression, satisfaction with social interaction and shielding status were found to be significant predictors of temporal distortion. A slower passage of time was associated with greater depression, shielding and greater dissatisfaction with social interactions. Feeling like it was longer than 8 months since the UK's first lockdown was associated with greater depression, increased dissatisfaction with social interaction and greater change of life as a result of lockdown. The results suggest that distortions to the passage of time are an enduring feature of lockdown life and that different factors predict temporal experience during different points in lockdown.

The passage of time during the UK Covid-19 lockdown.

In March 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK Government imposed social and physical distancing measures on the population. These lockdown measures caused significant changes to all aspects of daily life. The current study examined how the passage of time was distorted during the lockdown period. Using an online questionnaire, day and week passage of time judgments were collected. In addition, measures of affect, task load and satisfaction with current levels of social interaction were taken. The results show that over 80% of participants experienced distortion to the passage of time during lockdown in comparison with normal. The passage of time during the day was predicted by age, stress, task load and satisfaction with current levels of social interaction. A slowing of the passage of time was associated with increasing age, increasing stress, reduced task load and reduced satisfaction with current levels of social interaction. Only age and satisfaction with current levels of social interaction predicted passage of time across a week. Again, increasing age and reduced satisfaction with levels of social interaction were associated with a slowing of the passage of time. These findings demonstrate that significant changes to daily life have a significant impact on our experience of time, with younger, more socially satisfied people more likely to experience time as passing more quickly during the lockdown.

The effect of increased parasympathetic activity on perceived duration.

Theories of human temporal perception suggest that changes in physiological arousal distort the perceived duration of events. Behavioural manipulations of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activity support this suggestion, however the effects of behavioural manipulations of parasympathetic (PSNS) activity on time perception are unclear. The current study examined the effect of a paced respiration exercise known to increase PSNS activity on sub-second duration estimates. Participants estimated the duration of negatively and neutrally valenced images following a period of normal and paced breathing. PSNS and SNS activity were indexed by high-frequency heart-rate variability and pre-ejection period respectively. Paced breathing increased PSNS activity and reduced the perceived duration of the negative and neutrally valenced stimuli relative to normal breathing. The results show that manipulations of PSNS activity can distort time in the absence of a change in SNS activity. They also suggest that activities which increase PSNS activity may be effective in reducing the perceived duration of short events.

Time distortion under threat: Sympathetic arousal predicts time distortion only in the context of negative, highly arousing stimuli.

Theoretical models of time perception suggest a simple bottom-up relationship between physiological arousal and perceived duration. Increases in physiological arousal lengthen the perceived duration of events whereas decreases in physiological arousal reduce them. Whilst this relationship has been demonstrated for highly arousing negatively valenced stimuli, it has not been demonstrated for other classes of distorting stimuli (e.g. positively valenced or low arousal stimuli). The current study tested the effect of valence (positive and negative) and arousal level (high and low) on the relationship between physiological arousal and perceived duration. Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS) activity was measured during a verbal estimation task in which participants judged the duration of high and low arousal, positive, negative and neutrally valenced IAPS images. SNS and PSNS activity were indexed by measuring Pre-Ejection Period (PEP) and High Frequency Heart-rate Variability (HF-HRV) respectively. SNS reactivity was predicative of perceived duration, but only for high arousal negatively valenced stimuli, with decreases in PEP being associated with longer duration estimates. SNS and PSNS activity was not predictive of perceived duration for the low arousal negative stimuli or the low and high arousal positive stimuli. We therefore propose a new model suggesting that emotional distortions to time result from a combination of bottom-up (physiological arousal) and top-down (threat detection) factors.

Response-irrelevant number, duration, and extent information triggers the SQARC effect: Evidence from an implicit paradigm.

Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes (SNARC) and Spatial-Quantity Association of Response Codes (SQARC) effects are evident when people produce faster left-sided responses to smaller numbers, sizes, and durations and faster right-sided responses to larger numbers, sizes, and durations. SQARC effects have typically been demonstrated in paradigms where the explicit processing of quantity information is required for successful task completion. The current study tested whether the implicit presentation of task-irrelevant magnitude information could trigger a SQARC effect as has been demonstrated previously when task-irrelevant information triggers a SNARC effect. In Experiment 1, participants (n = 20) made orientation judgements for triangles varying in numerosity and physical extent. In Experiment 2, participants (n = 20) made orientation judgements for triangles varying in numerosity and for a triangle preceded by a delay of varying duration. SNARC effects were observed for the numerosity conditions of Experiments 1 and 2 replicating Mitchell et al. SQARC effects were also demonstrated for physical extent and for duration. These findings demonstrate that SQARC effects can be implicitly triggered by the presentation of the task-irrelevant magnitude.

Executive processes and timing: Comparing timing with and without reference memory.

Temporal perception is influenced by executive function. However, performance on different temporal tasks is often associated with different executive functions. This study examined whether using reference memory during a task influenced how performance was associated with executive resources. Participants completed temporal generalisation and bisection tasks, in their normal versions involving reference memory and in episodic versions without reference memory. Each timing task had two difficulty levels: easy and hard. Correlations between performance on these tasks and measures of executive function (updating, inhibition, task switching, and access to semantic memory) were assessed. Accuracy on the temporal generalisation task was correlated with memory access for all versions of the task. Updating correlated with accuracy only for the reference memory-based version of the task. Temporal bisection performance presented a different pattern of correlations. The bisection point was negatively correlated with inhibition scores, except for the easy episodic condition. The Weber ratio, considered a measure of temporal sensitivity, was negatively correlated with memory access only in the hard episodic condition. Together, the findings suggest that previous models of generalisation and bisection may not accurately reflect the underlying cognitive processes involved in the tasks.

The relationship between pain-induced autonomic arousal and perceived duration.

Emotional distortions of the perceived duration of events are often explained in terms of increases and decreases in arousal. While this explanation is theoretically plausible, there is a lack of evidence for a direct relationship between physiological arousal and perceived duration. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether physiological arousal, defined by autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity is directly related to perceived duration. In two experiments we measured skin conductance level (SCL) and high frequency heart rate variability (HF HRV) during verbal estimation tasks. In Experiment 1, participants estimated the duration of electro-cutaneous stimuli previously rated as inducing no pain, low pain and high pain. High intensity stimuli were perceived as lasting for longer than low intensity stimuli, and these changes in duration estimation were associated with changes in ANS activity. In Experiment 2, participants estimated the duration of a neutral visual stimulus while experiencing different intensities of background thermal pain (no pain, low pain, and high pain), to determine whether task-irrelevant arousal also affects time perception. Duration estimations for the neutral stimulus did not increase with pain intensity despite significant increases in SCL. Furthermore, there was no association between ANS activity and time estimation in Experiment 2. These findings suggest that the relationship between physiological arousal and time perception is more complex than previously described. While physiological arousal can influence the perceived duration of events, it appears to have a greater capacity to do so when the to-be-timed stimulus is itself the source of arousal. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The differential recruitment of short-term memory and executive functions during time, number, and length perception: An individual differences approach.

Developmental, behavioural, and neurological similarities in the processing of different magnitudes (time, number, space) support the existence of a common magnitude processing system (e.g., a theory of magnitude, ATOM). It is, however, unclear whether the recruitment of wider cognitive resources (short-term memory, STM; and executive function) during magnitude processing is similar across magnitude domains or is domain specific. The current study used an individual differences approach to examine the relationship between STM, executive function, and magnitude processing. In two experiments, participants completed number, length, and duration bisection tasks to assess magnitude processing and tasks that have been shown to assess STM span and executive component processes. The results suggest that the recruitment of STM and executive resources differed for the different magnitude domains. Duration perception was associated with access, inhibition, and STM span. Length processing was associated with updating, and number processing was associated with access to semantic memory. For duration and length, greater difficulty in the magnitude judgement task resulted in more relationships to STM and executive function. It is suggested that duration perception may be more demanding of STM and executive resources because it is represented sequentially, unlike length and number which can be represented nonsequentially.

Symmetry Lasts Longer Than Random, but Only for Brief Presentations.

Previous research has shown that explicit emotional content or physical image properties (e.g., luminance, size, and numerosity) alter subjective duration. Palumbo recently demonstrated that the presence or absence of abstract reflectional symmetry also influenced subjective duration. Here, we explored this phenomenon further by varying the type of symmetry (reflection or rotation) and the objective duration of stimulus presentation (less or more than 1 second). Experiment 1 used a verbal estimation task in which participants estimated the presentation duration of reflection, rotation symmetry, or random square-field patterns. Longer estimates were given for reflectional symmetry images than rotation or random, but only when the image was presented for less than 1 second. There was no difference between rotation and random. These findings were confirmed by a second experiment using a paired-comparison task. This temporal distortion could be because reflection has positive valence or because it is processed efficiently be the visual system. The mechanism remains to be determined. We are relatively sure, however, that reflectional patterns can increase subjective duration in the absence of explicit semantic content, and in the absence of changes in the size, luminance, or numerosity in the images.