Recognition of durations embedded in temporal patterns.

Subjects were presented with a pair of blips which defined a standard duration, followed by another pair of blips, which defined a comparison duration, and they judged whether the comparison was identical to the standard, longer, or shorter. In one set of conditions, a series of extra blips was interpolated during the interstimulus interval, so as to produce interpolated durations in the same range as the standard. Comparison judgments here reflected distortion of memory for the standard in the direction of the interpolated duration. In another set of conditions, the interpolated blips defined durations in the range of half the standard. Comparison judgments here reflected distortion of memory for the standard in the direction of twice the interpolated duration. These results are in accordance with the hypothesis that temporal patterns are distorted by the listener so that they appear closer to those with simple metrical descriptions, and that such distortions occur through a process of memory interference between durations which are embedded in the patterns.