Effect of Numeric Order on Subjective Duration of Following Stimulus

A perceived duration is affected by the magnitude of a stimulus. In most studies, the magnitudes are attributed to the target stimulus itself. We focused on a representation of magnitude organized in the brain, using ascending and descending numbers. We investigated whether these representations affected the duration judgment. A subject watched the ascending, descending, or randomly ordered numbers and judged the duration of a square presented just after the last digit. In all conditions, subjects overestimated the duration of the target stimulus. The overestimation was larger in the ascending than in the descending condition. The temporal judgments were not significantly different when only a single digit was presented before the target. Thus, the order of presentation has a significant effect in the temporal processing of following visual stimulus. We conclude that the priming by the order of numbers affected to the temporal processing of subsequent stimulus.