Script Author: Katja Borchert, Ph.D. (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Created: January 24, 2013
Last Modified: January 12, 2025 by K. Borchert (katjab@millisecond.com), Millisecond
Script Copyright © Millisecond Software, LLC
This script implements a Prospective Time Estimation procedure similarly to the one described in Wittman et al (2007).
Prospective Time Estimation Tasks measure people's ability to predict task durations. They can be used to assess cognitive functions like attention and memory and potential biases such as under/over estimation tendencies.
Wittmann, M., Leland, D.S., Jan Churan, J. & Paulus, M.P.(2007). Impaired time perception and motor timing in stimulant-dependent subjects. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 90, 183–192. (p.184)
1 minute
Participants are asked to estimate a time interval that starts with the presentation of a green circle and a recording saying "start" and ends with the presentation of a red circle and the sound of an alarm. After pressing the Spacebar to turn off the alarm, participants are asked to estimate the duration of the time interval on a slider with 1s increments (0-3min).
Participants are played a tone for a set time interval (editable).
Afterwards they have to estimate the length of the time interval via a slider-response
see section Editable Stimuli
Instructions are not original to the task. They are provided by Millisecond
as htm/html pages and can be edited by changing the provided htm/html files.
To edit htm/html-files: open the respective documents in simple Text Editors such as TextEdit (Mac)
or Notepad (Windows).
File Name: prospectivetimeestimation_summary*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| inquisit.version | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| computer.touch | 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities |
| computer.hasKeyboard | 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected |
| startDate | Date the session was run |
| startTime | Time the session was run |
| subjectId | Participant ID |
| groupId | Group number |
| sessionId | Session number |
| elapsedTime | Session duration in ms |
| completed | 0 = Test was not completed 1 = Test was completed |
| timeinterval | Time interval to estimate in ms (default: 53000ms = 53s) |
| intervalestimation | Stores the participant's estimation in s |
File Name: prospectivetimeestimation_raw*.iqdat
| Name | Description |
|---|---|
| build | Inquisit version number |
| computer.platform | Device platform: win | mac |ios | android |
| computer.touch | 0 = device has no touchscreen capabilities; 1 = device has touchscreen capabilities |
| computer.hasKeyboard | 0 = no external keyboard detected; 1 = external keyboard detected |
| date | Date the session was run |
| time | Time the session was run |
| subject | Participant ID |
| group | Group number |
| session | Session number |
| blockcode | The name the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) |
| blocknum | The number of the current block (built-in Inquisit variable) |
| trialcode | The name of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) |
| trialnum | The number of the currently recorded trial (built-in Inquisit variable) trialnum is a built-in Inquisit variable; it counts all trials run even those that do not store data to the data file. |
| timeinterval | Time interval to estimate in ms (default: 53000ms = 53s) |
| intervalestimation | Stores the participant's estimation in s |
| latency | The response latency (in ms) |
The procedure can be adjusted by setting the following parameters.
| Name | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| timeInterval | Time interval to estimate in ms if time interval is changed, slider.TE_response may have to be adapted accordingly | 53000 |
| greenCircleDelayMS | Pause in ms (empty screen) before green circle appears after starting the task | 1000 |