The effects of quantity, complexity, and attentional demand on children’s time perception

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of quantity, complexity, and attentional demand on children’s time perception. The appropriateness for children of two models of time perception founded primarily on adult research was examined. These models were the attentional hypothesis and the storage size hypothesis. Ninety-six children, 32 each of 6, 9, and 12 years, observed two and four displays of simple and complex shapes under conditions of higher (matching) or lower (looking) attentional demand. In accord with the attentional model, an inverse relationship was found between attentional demand and children’s time perception. However, in accord with the storage size model, a positive relation was found between quantity and children’s time perception. A developmental trend was also found: younger children were more susceptible to the quantity effect, and older children were more susceptible to the attentional demand effect. Results generalize adult findings to younger children, but the pattern of results is not easily explained solely by either model. Further refinements of either model, or development of a new model that can integrate the two separate findings, appears warranted.

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