Memory capacity as the core mechanism of the development of space-time interferences in children.

This study investigated the development of spatiotemporal perceptual interactions in 5-to-7 years old children. Participants reproduced the temporal and spatial interval between sequentially presented visual stimuli. The time and spacing between stimuli were experimentally manipulated. In addition, cognitive capacities were assessed using neuropsychological tests. Results revealed that starting at 5 years old, children exhibited spatial biases in their time estimations and temporal biases in their spatial estimations, pointing at space-time interference. In line with developmental improvement of temporal and spatial abilities, these spatiotemporal biases decreased with age. Importantly, short-term memory capacity was a predictor of space-time interference pointing to shared cognitive mechanisms between time and space processing. Our results support the symmetrical hypothesis that proposes a common neurocognitive mechanism for processing time and space.

The timing database: An open-access, live repository for interval timing studies.

Interval timing refers to the ability to perceive and remember intervals in the seconds to minutes range. Our contemporary understanding of interval timing is derived from relatively small-scale, isolated studies that investigate a limited range of intervals with a small sample size, usually based on a single task. Consequently, the conclusions drawn from individual studies are not readily generalizable to other tasks, conditions, and task parameters. The current paper presents a live database that presents raw data from interval timing studies (currently composed of 68 datasets from eight different tasks incorporating various interval and temporal order judgments) with an online graphical user interface to easily select, compile, and download the data organized in a standard format. The Timing Database aims to promote and cultivate key and novel analyses of our timing ability by making published and future datasets accessible as open-source resources for the entire research community. In the current paper, we showcase the use of the database by testing various core ideas based on data compiled across studies (i.e., temporal accuracy, scalar property, location of the point of subjective equality, malleability of timing precision). The Timing Database will serve as the repository for interval timing studies through the submission of new datasets.

Cognitive and plastic recurrent neural network clock model for the judgment of time and its variations.

The aim of this study in the field of computational neurosciences was to simulate and predict inter-individual variability in time judgements with different neuropsychological properties. We propose and test a Simple Recurrent Neural Network-based clock model that is able to account for inter-individual variability in time judgment by adding four new components into the clock system: the first relates to the plasticity of the neural system, the second to the attention allocated to time, the third to the memory of duration, and the fourth to the learning of duration by iteration. A simulation with this model explored its fit with participants' time estimates in a temporal reproduction task undertaken by both children and adults, whose varied cognitive abilities were assessed with neuropsychological tests. The simulation successfully predicted 90% of temporal errors. Our Cognitive and Plastic RNN-Clock model (CP-RNN-Clock), that takes into account the interference arising from a clock system grounded in cognition, was thus validated.

Effect of food cues on time perception: influence of calories and diet control.

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence on individuals' time perception of observing a range of foods differing in calorific content. In a first experiment, 92 adult participants performed a temporal bisection task with stimulus durations presented in the form of high- or low-calorie food pictures as well as matched non-food control pictures. In a second experiment, 102 participants performed a strict replication of Experiment 1, without the low-calorie pictures condition as it showed less pronounced effects. Across the two experiments, the data revealed common results. An overestimation of time was observed in relation to high-calorie food pictures when compared with non-food pictures (Experiment 2), and the effect was a function of participants' diet control (Experiments 1 & 2). Contrary to our hypothesis, the more the participants reported controlling their diet, the less they overestimated the time when presented with food stimuli. The participants who controlled their diet reported being less aroused by the high-calorie food pictures, allowing the assumption that the modulation in time overestimation relies on the arousal response generated by high-calorie food pictures.

The relationships between social media exposure, food craving, cognitive impulsivity and cognitive restraint.

BACKGROUND: Young adults are increasingly exposed to social media and their image/video-based activities. They use these platforms to share images, videos and advice in different fields like food and nutrition with: recipe ideas, nutritional opinions or specific diets. Along with the rise of digital technologies, the prevalence of eating disorders in young adults continues to grow. The present study analyzes the psychological and eating processes through which exposure to social media may lead to the development of food craving and problematic eating behaviors. METHODS: A total of 103 young adult men (n = 15) and women (n = 88) answered questionnaires measuring their impulsivity (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale), eating habits (Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire), food craving (Food Cravings Questionnaire-Trait-reduced), and time exposure to social media. RESULTS: The results showed two significant serial mediations. We found a correlational link between time exposure to social media and food craving scores. This positive relation is indirectly mediated by cognitive impulsivity. We also found a positive correlation between cognitive impulsivity and food craving scores that was mediated by cognitive restraint. CONCLUSION: A better understanding of the existing links between social media, food craving and eating behaviors such as cognitive restraint could help researchers and clinicians to better guide young adults in their use and appropriation of social media food contents.

Young adults are increasingly using social media to share images, videos and opinions on a wide range of areas including food. Young people discuss recipes tips, nutritional opinions or specific diet advice. Online platforms expose young people to a set of contradictory data, often generalist, and non-individualized advice that can create the feeling of being overwhelmed by information. This study aimed to understand the potential impact of this increasingly frequent exposure to social media on eating behaviors of young adults. The results showed that longer exposure times to social media were indirectly linked to an irrepressible urge to eat via increased impulsivity. High impulsivity scores were also indirectly related to food craving via food restriction. A better understanding of the links between social media, food craving and eating behaviors could help researchers and clinicians to better guide young adults in their use and appropriation of social media food contents. By knowing more precisely the processes at work behind exposure to social media, it can become possible to undertake awareness actions in order to prevent the development of subsequent eating issues.

Effectiveness of an online positive psychology intervention among Tunisian healthcare students on mental health and study engagement during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Research indicates that university students present higher levels of psychological distress compared with non-student age-matched youth. These levels are higher among healthcare students, and even higher during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, cost-effective large-scale interventions are needed in order to prevent further development of psychological distress during this period, and more generally. The aim of the current study was to assess the effectiveness of an 8-week Internet-based positive psychology intervention for healthcare students in Tunisia. A two-armed randomized controlled trial was conducted among a sample of 366 health care students (183 in the experimental group and 183 in the control group), with a majority of women (94%). The average age was 20.74 years (±1.64). The participants completed the following online questionnaires at three time-points (before the program, immediately after, and three months later): stress, anxiety, depression, emotional regulation, optimism, hope, study engagement, and well-being. Repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed significant positive effects of the intervention on all the measured variables for the experimental group. The results showed a significant improvement immediately after the intervention compared to the control group, which was maintained three months later. This program may thus be considered as a promising means of improving students' mental health and study engagement.

How physical activity and passion color the passage of time: A response with ultra-trail runners.

The aim of this study was to replicate the results of a lengthening effect caused by physical activity already observed in duration length judgment, using the time passage judgment measure, while exploring the effects of passion types (obsessive vs. harmonious) on time perception. A total of 378 ultra-trail runners responded to an online questionnaire in which the type of passion and the passage of time (PoT) judgments associated with both an ultra-trail context and a non-trail daily context were collected. The results showed that participants systematically judged the time as being dilated in a situation of sports practice, thus extending the results obtained in interval duration judgment studies. This study also showed an influence of the type of passion: higher levels of harmonious passion were related to greater feelings of time dilation, while higher levels of obsessive passion were related to greater feelings of both time contraction and time dilation. Results are discussed in light of the two major factors that influence the PoT referenced in the literature, namely, attention and happiness level.

When Dogs Shrink the Typical Lengthening Effect Caused by Negative Emotions.

This paper examines how dogs can modulate the effects of emotion on time perception. To this end, participants performed a temporal bisection task with stimulus durations presented in the form of neutral or emotional facial expressions (angry, sad, and happy faces). In the first experiment, dog owners were compared with nondog owners, while in the second experiment, students were randomly assigned to one of the three waiting groups (waiting alone, with another person, or with a dog) before being confronted with the temporal bisection task. The results showed that dogs allowed the participants to regulate the intensity of negative emotional effects, while no statistical differences emerged for the happy facial expressions. In certain circumstances, dogs could even lead the subjects to generate underestimation of time when faced with negative facial expressions.

Simultaneous time processing in children and adults: When attention predicts temporal interference effects.

Children from 5 to 8 years of age, as well as adults, performed a temporal reproduction task in both a solo-timing condition and a multi-timing condition, with different durations presented simultaneously. In the multi-timing condition, all durations were processed because the participants did not know in advance which stimulus needed to be judged. In a first experiment, two or three durations were presented with a synchrony of their onset. In a second experiment, two durations were presented simultaneously with asynchrony of their offset, different lengths of the concurrent duration, and different presentation orders. In addition, the participants' cognitive abilities in terms of selective attention, as well as short-term and working memory, were assessed with different neuropsychological tests. The results of both experiments showed that children and adults alike were able to process multiple durations simultaneously. However, the simultaneous presentation of different durations generated a temporal interference effect in children and adults, resulting in longer and more variable time estimates. This temporal interference effect was nevertheless higher in children due to their limited attention capacities. Therefore, a developmental improvement in the ability to process different durations simultaneously is related to the cognitive development of attention capacities.

Time contraction caused by a distractor in children and adults: The influence of inhibition capacities.

The aim of this study was to examine the cognitive processes involved in time contraction caused by a non-temporal distractor during the presentation of a temporal stimulus. To this aim 95 children aged 5 to 8 years old as well as 25 adults were first trained to discriminate, on two visual temporal bisection tasks, a short standard duration (400 or 600 ms) from a long one (1500 or 2400 ms). They had then to decide whether intermediate stimulus duration was more similar to the short or to the long standard duration. Furthermore, a 40 ms distractor taking the form of a 4 cm diameter rosette, either did or did not appear during the temporal stimulus. Participants' task was to report whether they had been exposed to the short or long standard duration. Subsequently, each subject's capacities in terms of memory skills (short term and working memory), as well as attention (selective attention and inhibition), were assessed using different neuropsychological tests. The results showed a shortening effect of the perceived time from non-distractor to distractor trials, which also turned out to attenuate with the age increase. Interestingly, inhibition was found to mediate this effect while the other cognitive variables were found to be of no significance. We therefore discussed the importance of categorizing two attentional interferences: one related to attention control and the other to attentional resources.

Differences in modal distortion in time perception due to working memory capacity: a response with a developmental study in children and adults.

This study tested the modality effect on time judgment in a bisection task in children and adults when auditory and visual stimuli were presented in the same session. Cognitive capacities of children and adults were assessed with different neuropsychological tests. The results showed a modality effect, with the auditory stimuli judged longer than the visual stimuli. However, this modality distortion in time judgment was higher in the younger children. Statistical analyses revealed that the size of this time distortion was directly related to individual working memory capacities.

The dynamic effect of context on interval timing in children and adults.

Human reproductions of time intervals are often biased toward previously perceived durations, resulting in a central tendency effect. The aim of the current study was to compare this effect of temporal context on time reproductions within children and adults. Children aged from 5 to 7 years, as well as adults, performed a ready-set-go reproduction task with a short and a long duration distribution. A central tendency effect was observed both in children and adults, with no age-difference in the effect of global context on temporal performance. However, the analysis of the effect of local context (trial-by-trial) indicated that younger children relied more on the duration (objective duration) presented in the most recent trial than adults. In addition, statistical analyses of the influence on temporal performance of recently reproduced durations by subjects (subjective duration) revealed that temporal reproductions in adults were influenced by performance drifts, i.e., their evaluation of their temporal error, while children simply relied on the value of reproduced durations on the recent trials. We argue that the central tendency effect was larger in young children due to their noisier internal representation of durations: A noisy system led participants to base their estimation on experienced duration rather than on the evaluation of their judgment.

High levels of time contraction in young children in dual tasks are related to their limited attention capacities.

Numerous studies have shown that durations are judged shorter in a dual-task condition than in a simple-task condition. The resource-based theory of time perception suggests that this is due to the processing of temporal information, which is a demanding cognitive task that consumes limited attention resources. Our study investigated whether this time contraction in a dual-task condition is greater in younger children and, if so, whether this is specifically related to their limited attention capacities. Children aged 5-7years were given a temporal reproduction task in a simple-task condition and a dual-task condition. In addition, different neuropsychological tests were used to assess not only their attention capacities but also their capacities in terms of working memory and information processing speed. The results showed a shortening of perceived time in the dual task compared with the simple task, and this increased as age decreased. The extent of this shortening effect was directly linked to younger children's limited attentional capacities; the lower their attentional capacities, the greater the time contraction. This study demonstrated that children's errors in time judgments are linked to their cognitive capacities rather than to capacities that are specific to time.