CONTRASTING TASK DEMANDS ALTER THE PERCEIVED DURATION OF BRIEF TIME INTERVALS

Four experiments were performed to assess the effects of task differen ces on duration judgments. Experiments 1 and 2 used the method of repr oduction in prospective, within-subjects designs; their results suppor ted previous research on the effects of task difficulty Both experimen ts, using tasks that varied along somewhat different dimensions, found that subjects provided reproduction values that varied inversely with task difficulty. That is, while subjects tended to underreproduce acr oss ah tasks, the more difficult the task performed during the target interval, the greater the extent of the underreproduction. Experiments 3 and 4 used a modification of the reproduction method by placing dem ands upon the subjects during both the target interval and the reprodu ction phase of each trial; they demonstrated that the greater the degr ee of contrast between demands made by the task performed during the t arget interval and those made during reproduction, the less accurate t he duration reproduction. The results are discussed in terms of the co ntextual and resource allocation models of duration estimation.