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Research advances on the duration aftereffect

LI Bao-Lin¹, HUANG Xi-Ting^2,*

¹School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China；²Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China

Abstract

Recent sensory history plays a critical role in the perception of event duration. For example, repetitive exposure to a particular duration leads to the distortion of subsequent duration perception. This phenomenon, termed duration adaptation, induces a robust repulsive duration aftereffect. In particular, adaptation to relatively long sensory events shortens the perceived duration of a subsequent event, while adaptation to relatively short sensory events lengthens the perception of subsequent event durations. This phenomenon implies the plasticity of duration perception and offers important clues for revealing the cognitive neural mechanism of duration perception. Duration aftereffect has received more and more attention in recent years. In this review, we introduce recent research advances in our understanding of duration aftereffect, especially with regards to its manifestations, origin, and cognitive neural mechanisms. We also propose possible directions for future research. In sum, we posit that studies on the duration aftereffect phenomenon are helpful in understanding general duration perception, and as such, should receive more attention in future. 

Key words: duration perception; aftereffect; anchor effect; channel-based model; neural basis

Received: 2018-05-02　　Accepted: 2018-08-05

Corresponding author: 黄希庭　　E-mail: xthuang@swu.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2018.0099

Citing This Article：

LI Bao-Lin, HUANG Xi-Ting. Research advances on the duration aftereffect. Acta Physiol Sin 2019; 71 (1): 95-104 (in Chinese with English abstract).