The effect of marker variability on the discrimination of temporal intervals

Abstract

This research investigates the human observer's ability to discriminate between the durations of two silent intervals, each interval preceded and followed by noise bursts called markers. The markers are separated by T or T + ΔT′ msec and T ranges from 0.3 to 1,000 msec. ΔT is defined as that value of ΔT′ for which the probability of discriminating T from T + ΔT′ is 0.75. We compared the value of AT for conditions in which the markers were fixed in amplitude and duration with conditions in which the marker amplitudes and durations were randomly chosen. ΔT increased by as much as a factor of 4 when the amplitude and duration of the markers were randomized. The performance decrement was primarily due to randomizing the first marker duration. © 1976 Psychonomic Society, Inc.