Overestimation of Event Duration by Females and Males

Paper Critique Time Went by so Slowly: Overestimation of Event Duration by Males and Females by E. F. LOFTUS, J. W. SCHOOLER, S.M. BOONE, & D. KLINE published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2011 (original work published 1987) Human behaviour is incomplete without the concept of time. Humans perceive the flow of time despite of not understanding the exact notion describing it (Zakay, 2014). From a psychological perspective, time is a produce of the human mind, which feeds the human information processing system with relevant insights allowing the cognitive system to develop representations of the environment so that people adapt their behaviour (Trautmann, 1995, as cited in Zakay, 2014). Psychological time as such is important in people’s day-to-day life, fulfilling functions like task duration estimation, with implications in various fields from test taking performance (Pedri & Hesketh, 1993) to criminal or civil investigations and legal proceedings (Marsh & Greenberg, 2006). However, time judgments made by humans are not always accurate and in the past decades, extensive research has linked the estimation of time durations to emotions (Droit-Volet, Fayolle, Lamotte, & Gil, 2013). In this regard, the paper of Loftus, Schooler, Boone, and Kline (1987/2011) explores subjects’ experience of time based on the concepts of arousal, demonstrating that both females and males overestimate time duration. With this in mind, the present paper aims to review critically the study of Loftus et al. (1987/2011), by providing references to subsequent theoretical developments and research in this field, as well as to real-life applications of the studies. The paper of Loftus et al. (1987/2011) examines the levels of accuracy for time estimations in both males and females, as well as the impact of arousal and memory storage on time judgments, conveying ultimately that both males and females overestimate duration of events. The estimation of time is higher when subjects were exposed to arousal stimuli or when they store greater amounts of information. The study applies as research method three different experiments, in a laboratory environment, exposing three different samples of subjects to video recordings of simulated bank robberies. Led by the implications of wrong time estimations in the field of justice, with reference to reallife scenarios, the paper builds upon the theoretical framework of Ornstein (1969, as cited in Loftus et al., 1987/2011) which links memory storage space to the estimation of time. This means that the more amount of details or complexity the memory stores, the longer the time estimations are. In addition, the authors draw upon the hypotheses of Fraisse (1963) and Block (1978, as cited in Pedri & Hesketh, 1993), stating that the perception of time is correlated with the perception of change experienced by the subject. The notion of change refers in this context to transformations taking place in the environment, or internally, like for instance, the level of stress or arousal. The first experiment attempting to assess the accuracy of time estimation proves that both males and females overestimate duration of time. The second experiment aimed to understand the relation between time and accurate recollection of information shows as well an overestimation of time duration by both males and females, with females giving longer time estimates. On the other hand, females store more details of the event. Lastly, the third experiment proves again that females’ estimates of time are longer than men’s estimates, but also that subjects experiencing higher levels of stress reported longer time estimates. Overall, the study shows that human beings tend to overestimate the duration of events, with females reporting longer durations than men do on the same event. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the hypothesis that high levels of arousal cause higher levels of time estimations. The experience of time is regarded as prospective when the subject is conscious about the need of estimating the duration of an ongoing interval of time and retrospective when the subject is aware of the need to estimate the duration after the interval of time ended (Block, 1989, as cited in Zakay, 2014). In the case of Loftus et al. (1987/2011), the authors analyse retrospectively the time estimations of their study subjects. The authors succeed to underpin the research with literature related to cognitive psychology, like for instance the link to memory and its storage capacity influence on time estimations. Subsequently, they demonstrate in a consistent manner with inter-related experiments their hypotheses. Each of the experiment is linked to the findings of the previous one. Furthermore, they provide ample details on experiments’ results, with plausible explanations and reference to literature. For example, in trying to explain the difference between internal and reported arousal and their correlation to time estimation, the authors make the analogy to treadmill runners of various physical conditions and their pulse rates. The estimation of time is crucial in various domains, but in particular in the field of criminal investigations, when erroneous time estimations may have detrimental outcomes during the research of a case. Misjudgements of time duration may relate to the actual duration of the crime, or the intervals elapsed between events (Marsh & Greenberg, 2006). As such, this is also the argument offered by the authors in reasoning the need of this type of research with reference to a real case of first-degree murder (Loftus, 1974, as cited in Loftus et al., 1987/2011). This demonstrates thus, the application of the study to the real-world life. As a proof of the criticality of the topic, there has been extensive research after 1987 when the article of Loftus et al. was first published. For example, recent studies from 1990s and 2000s prove that negative emotional stimuli producing high levels of arousal do cause longer subjective time (Anderson, Reis-Costa & Misanin, 2007; Campbell & Bryant, 2007; Stetson, Fiesta & Eagleman, 2007, as cited in Droit-Volet et al., 2013). In contrast to all these findings, Kellaris and Mantel (1996) show no differences between different levels of arousal and time estimations after exposing subjects to calming or stressing types of music. In a similar note, Gruber and Block (2003, as cited in Campbell & Bryant, 2007) show that arousal caused by caffeine has no effects on time judgment. The aim of this essay was to review critically the study of Loftus et al. (1987/2011) on time perception differences between females and males when exposed to arousal-inducing stimuli, by evaluating the underpinning theories and their relevance in the context of this study. Furthermore, the paper also attempted to show that Loftus et al.’s study is relevant for realworld and has triggered similar experiments in the field. Loftus et al. (1987/2011) succeed to demonstrate through a robust application of theoretical developments and three different experiments that human beings overestimate duration of events, especially when exposed to stressful stimuli. Females are prone to report longer time duration than males, but on the other hand, they also store more information than males. Subsequent research in the field mostly validates the 1987’s study findings. References Campbell, L. A., & Bryant, R. A. (2007). How time flies: A study of novice skydivers. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(6), 1389-1392. 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