Contextual change effects in retrospective and prospective duration judgment paradigms using muscial pieces

Abstract

This study provides support for differences in prospective and retrospective duration judgment paradigms. These differences have been attributed to the amount of change in processing context. Therefore, the study also examined contextual changes in musical pieces. A 2 x 3 factorial design experiment measured differences in verbal duration estimates made for prospective and retrospective conditions. In these conditions there were three music stimulus pieces: a simple, a complex, and a mixed type. In the retrospective condition, mixed type duration estimates were significantly longer than in the prospective condition. Also in the retrospective condition, mixed type duration estimates were reported as significantly longer than both the simple and complex music types. These findings provide further support for differences in prospective and retrospective paradigms (Block, Hancock & Zakay, 2010; Block & Zakay, 1997) as well as the contextual-change hypothesis for retrospective duration judgment (Block & Reed, 1978).