Anchoring Effect In Duration Estimation

Duration estimation is an essential cognitive activity, it is very important in human being's daily life. Most of researches reveal that duration estimation was affected by sorts of factors, such as the length of temporal stimulus, the affective valence and arousal, attention, memory and so on. There were some studies also suggested that the time anchors presented previously bias the duration estimate, however, the previous studies mainly adopted the method of rating to discuss the anchoring effect in duration estimation, and they neither discussed this effect in other time methods, nor examined the effect of anchors with different format on duration estimation. In this study, we explored how the anchors with different magnitude (numerical anchor and physical anchor) or format (high or low anchor) bias the time estimate.Experiment 1 investigated the effect of anchors on time production. The results showed that the physical anchor biased the time production, high physical anchor induced the longer productions, and low physical anchor induced shorter productions; nonetheless, the numerical anchor had no significant effect on productions.Experiment 2 investigated the effect of anchors on duration estimation. The results showed that the physical anchor and the numerical anchor all biased the duration estimation, high physical anchor induced the smaller estimates, and low physical anchor induced bigger estimates; nonetheless, the high numerical anchor induced bigger estimates, and low numerical anchor induced smaller estimates.Experiment 3 still investigated the effect of anchors on duration estimation, however, we presented physical anchor and numerical anchor to participants simultaneously, and investigated the effect of these anchors on duration estimation. Same to experiment 2, the results showed that the physical anchor and the numerical anchor all biased the duration estimation. Factually, the physical anchor combined with numerical anchor to form four kinds of anchor (namely, the low numerical-low physical anchor, low numerical-high physical anchor, high numerical-low physical anchor, high numerical-high physical anchor). We examined the duration estimates under the four kinds of anchors, the results suggested that the estimate for the low numerical-high physical anchor condition was the smallest, the estimate for the high numerical-low physical anchor was the biggest, and nonetheless the estimates for the low numerical-low physical anchor condition and the high numerical-high physical anchor condition were medium.From all of these studies, we can conclude that:1) The numerical anchor bias verbal estimate, high numerical anchor induce bigger estimates, low numerical anchor induce smaller estimates, this effect would occur at the stage of decision-making, nonetheless the numerical anchor not bias the temporal production, it may be that, in the method of production, there is no decision-making process in which the physical duration is translated into numerical value, so the numerical anchor do not bias the production.2) The physical anchor bias verbal estimation and production, however, the effects in the two methods are contrary. In the verbal estimation, the high physical anchor induce smaller estimate, and the low physical anchor induce bigger estimate, nonetheless, in the production, the high physical anchor induce longer production and low physical anchor induce shorter production. It suggests that the effect of physical anchor may be occur at the stage of perception, and it may be perceived contrast.3) When the physical anchor and numerical anchor are presented simultaneously, the effects of the two kinds of anchors will be superposed. If both the two anchor induce bigger estimate, the ultimate estimates will be the biggest, or if the both anchor induce smaller estimate, the ultimate estimates will be the smallest. Nonetheless, if the effects of the two kinds of anchors on estimate are inconsistent, the effects on estimation will be counteracted, and the estimate is between maximum and minimum values.