A Study On Kappa Effect Of Time Perception

Time and space are the two basic dimensions of the development and movement of external things.Psychological research has found that there is an inseparable relationship between individual time perception and space perception,and they will interfere with each other.Kappa effect is one of the most classical spatiotemporal interference effects,which represents the influence of spatial information in the environment on individuals’ perception of time.Specifically,the spatial interval between the stimuli causes systematic distortion of the perception of the time interval between the stimuli.From the perspective of mathematical models and neuroimaging,researchers have proposed different explanations for the cognitive neural mechanism of the Kappa effect.According to the classical model,individuals tend to regard the independent stimuli in different locations successively as the same object moving at a constant speed,and the perceived time interval between the stimuli is the weighted average of the actual time and the expected time,in which the expected time is the ratio of the spatial distance between the stimuli and the constant speed.Neuroimaging studies have found that there is a general quantitative system in the brain,and the quantitative dimensions of time,space and quantity are important components of this general quantitative system,and they share a common cognitive processing mechanism.However,the time course of spacetime interference is not clear,and there is no direct evidence to prove that the Kappa effect is caused by the constant velocity hypothesis.In Experiment 1,we used the Kappa effect paradigm combined with high temporal resolution event-related potential(ERP)technique to investigate the temporal course of spatiotemporal interference effect.Experiments first presents two small circles,the small circles were presented by two standard intervals(0.8 s and 1.2 s)and three kinds of space distance(0 ° and 5.6 ° and 15.5 °)randomly.The experiment required subjects to reproduce the standard time interval through the space button,on the premise of ignoring space distance.The EEG signals of the subjects were recorded at the same time.The results show that the replication time increases with the increase of time interval and space distance.In the parietal lobes,the amplitude of P2 and P3 increased with the increase of time interval and spatial distance.These results indicate that spatiotemporal interference occurs in the working memory stage.In Experiment 2,we combined the Kappa effect paradigm with the velocity-priming paradigm to investigate whether velocity-priming could regulate the constant velocity between stimuli and thus affect the Kappa effect.First,the velocity priming stimulus was presented,six small circles were rotated clockwise along the loop path at two different speeds for 2 seconds,and then two small circles were presented successively.The presentation mode of the small circles was divided into two standard time intervals(0.8s and 1.2s)and 6 spatial positions(0°,60°,120°,180°,240° and 300°)arranged in clockwise direction on the ring are randomly combined.The results showed that the replication time of the subjects increased with the increase of the spatial distance between the stimuli,and the change of the rotation speed of the priming stimulus had no effect on the Kappa effect.This suggests that the constant velocity hypothesis in the Kappa effect is stable,and the change of the speed of the priming stimulus does not regulate the individual’s constant velocity.In this study,we explored and tested the time process and model hypothesis of Kappa effect.Based on previous studies,we provided event-related potential technology to reveal the time process of spatiotemporal interference,and provided electrophysiological evidence to prove the existence of the general quantitative system.At the same time,spatiotemporal interference is ubiquitous in our life,which has caused a lot of security risks.The research on the cognitive neural mechanism of spatiotemporal interaction is helpful to predict and deal with the spatiotemporal information interference phenomenon that may occur in work,and improve the safety of interaction between individuals and the environment.