Larger stimuli are judged to last longer

TLDR

The human brain represents magnitude information across dimensions such as space, quantity, and time, and prior work has shown that numerical and spatial magnitudes can influence each other via a mental number line. This study tests whether magnitudes in non‑temporal dimensions and time are represented independently. Participants judged stimulus duration while four non‑temporal magnitude variables—dot count, square size, square luminance, and digit value—were varied in Stroop‑like paradigms. Results show that larger magnitudes in these non‑temporal dimensions caused stimuli to be perceived as longer, indicating that temporal and non‑temporal magnitudes share generalized, abstract components.

Abstract

Representing magnitude information in various dimensions, including space, quantity, and time, is an important function of the human brain. Many previous studies reported that numerical and spatial magnitudes could be mutually influenced through a “mental number line”. In this study, we address the question of whether magnitudes in nontemporal dimensions and magnitudes in time are represented independently or not. Observers judged the duration of the stimuli while four types of nontemporal magnitude information, including number of dots, size of open squares, luminance of solid squares, and numeric value of digits, were manipulated in Stroop-like paradigms. Results revealed that stimuli with larger magnitudes in these nontemporal dimensions were judged to be temporally longer. This observation supports the idea that magnitudes in temporal and nontemporal dimensions are not independent and implies the existence of generalized and abstract components in the magnitude representations.