The Velocity of Time: Primacy and Recency Effects on Time Perception

This research proposes that time may be perceived to “accelerate” or “decelerate” during an event and aims to address how a change in the velocity of “time” affects time perception in Internet environment. We motivate the theoretical relationship between prospective and on-line processing as well as retrospective and memory-based processing to investigate how established primacy and recency effects in serial information relate to our variable time velocity issue. Our findings show that duration estimates are influenced by one’s time paradigm and the variable velocity with which time passage was perceived. Follow-on studies extend the framework to include consideration of boundary conditions and moderators. Waiting time has been found to negatively influence satisfaction (Katz, Larson, and Larson 1991). Although substantial research has been devoted to the examination of factors influencing time perception, to our knowledge, they have conventionally viewed time as a linear construct where it proceeds as a constant flow of equal units. To this end, we propose that time may be perceived to “accelerate” or “decelerate” during an event. For instance, in the loading of a web page, a progress indicator may display the time to completion either in accelerating (from slow progress to fast progress) or decelerating (from fast progress to slow progress) fashion. How would a mere change in the velocity of “time” affect subjective downloading time perception? As a start, we propose that one answer lies in the specific instance when time perception is formed. Consistent with Soman (2003), we expect that estimations of duration are dependent on when the judgment is made. We compare between prospective and retrospective time perception. We motivate the theoretical relationship between prospective and on-line processing as well as retrospective and memory-based processing to investigate how established primacy and recency effects in serial information relate to our time velocity issue. Similar to on-line processing, prospective time is more amenable to primacy effects where judgment is made as the raw data becomes available (Hastie and Park 1986). Hence, we hypothesize that on-line processing leads to shorter time duration evaluations if the user initially encounters fast processing speed. In contrast, retrospective time and memory-based processing is more consistent with recency effect, where judgment is made based on information retrieved from memory. Thus, more recent information will make a greater impact. We therefore hypothesize that these users will judge the processing duration for a decelerating progression condition to be longer than for an accelerating progression. The study employed a 2 (Time Paradigm: Retrospective vs. Prospective) x 2 (Processing Speed Pattern: Accelerating vs. Decelerating) between-subjects design. The total waiting time for each condition was held constant at 1 minute. The findings revealed a significant interaction effect of time paradigm with processing speed pattern on perceived duration [F (1, 74)=10.4, p<.002]. Planned contrasts showed that the participants in the prospective condition rated the processing duration to be shorter in the decelerating condition [x fast initial=51.11, x slow initial=64.47, F (1, 74)=4.49, p<.05]. In contrast, those in the retrospective condition perceived time duration to be longer when the processing speed decelerated [x fast initial=63.25, x slow initial=48.57, F (1, 74)=6.01, p<.03]. Thus, our hypotheses are supported. In reality, time paradigms of Web users are usually unknown. Thus, a follow-on study tries to uncover the most ideal (if any) method of psychologically managing perceptions of download time when time paradigms of Web users are unknown, by exploring an invertedU rate of progression, that is, a fast-slow-fast pace. Theoretically, users in both prospective and retrospective conditions should perceive shorter durations given that the salient cues used for judgment are at the beginning and end respectively. However, we believe that the issue is not as straightforward. Preliminary, we think that the wait duration needs to be long enough to allow for fast-slow-fast transition. If the duration is “too” short, the transitions may simply be too obvious to the extent that consumer’s recognition of the varying velocities may overcome any primary/recency effects. We liken this to the schemer’s schema (Wright 1986) notion where consumers may interpret the fast-slow-fast (or any obvious) transition to be mere marketing tactics. At the same time, we explore the moderating effect of the importance of the website, since the value of time is context dependent (Leclerc, Schmitt, and Dube 1995). For instance, a download time of the same duration may be perceived to be longer or shorter depending on the importance of the website to the user. In other words, we are suggesting that the manipulation of time velocity to favorably affect perception may require careful boundary considerations; which the current research is trying to develop. The concept of variable velocities of wait time may also be tested in a services marketing context (such as call centers) or its application to behavioral cues. For instance, common wait management strategies for restaurants include taking the guest’s order before s/he is seated. Our findings in this research suggest that the timing of this order-taking would impact the perception of the wait duration, as it signals an “accelerated” process. We can also explore the effect of partitioning the experience (such as in a five-course western meal) versus a cohesive one (e.g., a Chinese meal where all courses are served at once) on the variable velocities effect we saw in our study. Ariely and Zauberman (2003) found that for retrospective experiences, partitioning of experiences attenuates the pattern of sequences on judgments. Instead, their evaluations are based more on each component’s momentary performance. Other studies on retrospective evaluations show that the Gestalt characteristics on which evaluations are based are usually the peak and final states of the experience (Ariely and Carmon 2000). It would be conceptually interesting to examine these relationships in a services marketing context with the inclusion of prospective conditions.