Attention and control processes in interval timing

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The ability to estimate short time intervals is involved in a variety of everyday human behaviors. Coordinating movements, playing music, driving a car in a moving environment, judging "normal" durations in social interactions (e.g., pauses in conversations, durations of visual contact or of a handshake) entail estimating time intervals in the second range. Numerous studies have revealed that in humans, accurate timing requires attention and memory. Evidence for this conclusion comes mainly from studies showing interference between timing tasks and tasks requiring attention and memory: when humans are asked to estimate time while doing simultaneously another task involving attention or memory, timing is systematically perturbed. This research program investigates the role of specific factors related to attention and memory in time estimation. When we expect an interruption in a stimulus that we are currently timing, our estimate of its duration is greatly affected, presumably because expectancy detracts attention from timing. In the first part of the program, we will analyze how the degree of certainty about the expectancy of an interruption influences our temporal estimate. Besides, our previous studies showed that preparation to interrupt or to resume timing affects time estimates also, which we will investigate further in the program. In the second part of the program, we will analyze the interference between timing and switching between different tasks. Recent data suggest that timing and task switching may interfere with each other. The switching conditions used in the experiments of the present program require coordinating mental activities in working memory, activities such as remembering temporal position in task sequences (e.g., which task comes before the other), planning and preparing to switch to a forthcoming task. In addition to uncovering specific cognitive processes involved in timing, the program will provide novel insights on the role of temporal processing when we must alternate between various tasks. Besides, in the past, our fundamental research on timing and attention has produced a useful paradigm sensitive to cognitive deficits related to aging. In the present program, similar developments are planned in more applied settings.