Emotion and time perception: effects of film-induced mood

Abstract

Previous research into emotion and time perception has been designed to study the time perception of emotional events themselves (e.g., facial expression). Our aim was to investigate the effect of emotions per se on the subsequent time judgment of a neutral, non-affective event. In the present study, the participants were presented with films inducing a specific mood and were subsequently given a temporal bisection task. More precisely, the participants were given two temporal bisection tasks, one before and the other after viewing the emotional film. Three emotional films were tested: one eliciting fear, another sadness, and a neutral control film. In addition, the direct mood experience was assessed using the Brief Mood Introspective Scale that was administered to the participants at the beginning and the end of the session. The results showed that the perception of time did not change after viewing either the neutral control films or the sad films although the participants reported being sadder and less aroused after than before watching the sad film clips. In contrast, the stimulus durations were judged longer after than before viewing the frightening films that were judged to increase the emotion of fear and arousal level. In combination with findings from previous studies, our data suggest that the selective lengthening effect after watching frightening films was mediated by an effect of arousal on the speed of the internal clock system.

Keywords: emotion; fear; mood; sadness; time perception; timing.

Figure 1

Psychometric function for fear. Proportion of long responses plotted against probe durations (ms) for the bisection task before and after viewing the frightening films in the 200/400 and the 800/1600-ms duration range.

Figure 2

Psychometric function for sadness. Proportion of long responses plotted against probe durations (ms) for the bisection task before and after viewing the sad films in the 200/400 and the 800/1600-ms duration range.

Figure 3

Psychometric function for neutral. Proportion of long responses plotted against comparison durations (ms) for the bisection task before and after viewing the neutral films in the 200/400 and the 800/1600-ms duration range.

Figure 4

Superimposition of psychometric functions for fear. Proportion of long responses plotted against probe durations divided by the bisection point (BP) for the pre- and post-film bisection task in the 200/400 and the 800/1600-ms duration range.