TY - JOUR

T1 - Illuminating ATOM

T2 - Taking time across the colour category border

AU - Samuel, Steven

AU - Bylund, Emanuel

AU - Cooper, Rachel

AU - Athanasopoulos, Panos

N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Acta Psychologica. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Acta Psychologica, 185, 2018 DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.01.011

PY - 2018/4

Y1 - 2018/4

N2 - Walsh's A Theory Of Magnitude (ATOM) contends that we represent magnitudes such as number, space, time and luminance on a shared metric, such that "more" of one leads to the perception of "more" of the other (e.g. Walsh, 2003). In support of ATOM, participants have been shown to judge intervals between stimuli that are more discrepant in luminance as having a longer duration than intervals between stimuli whose luminance differs by a smaller degree (Xuan, Zhang, He, & Chen, 2007). We tested the potential limits to the ability of luminance to influence duration perception by investigating the possibility that the luminance-duration relationship might be interrupted by a concurrent change in the colour of that luminance. We showed native Greek and native English speakers sequences of stimuli that could be either light or dark versions of green or blue. Whereas for both groups a shift in green luminance does not comprise a categorical shift in colour, for Greek speakers shifts between light and dark blue cross a colour category boundary (ghalazio and ble respectively). We found that duration judgements were neither interrupted nor inflated by a shift in colour category. These results represent the first evidence that the influence of luminance change on duration perception is resistant to interference from discrete changes within the same perceptual input.

AB - Walsh's A Theory Of Magnitude (ATOM) contends that we represent magnitudes such as number, space, time and luminance on a shared metric, such that "more" of one leads to the perception of "more" of the other (e.g. Walsh, 2003). In support of ATOM, participants have been shown to judge intervals between stimuli that are more discrepant in luminance as having a longer duration than intervals between stimuli whose luminance differs by a smaller degree (Xuan, Zhang, He, & Chen, 2007). We tested the potential limits to the ability of luminance to influence duration perception by investigating the possibility that the luminance-duration relationship might be interrupted by a concurrent change in the colour of that luminance. We showed native Greek and native English speakers sequences of stimuli that could be either light or dark versions of green or blue. Whereas for both groups a shift in green luminance does not comprise a categorical shift in colour, for Greek speakers shifts between light and dark blue cross a colour category boundary (ghalazio and ble respectively). We found that duration judgements were neither interrupted nor inflated by a shift in colour category. These results represent the first evidence that the influence of luminance change on duration perception is resistant to interference from discrete changes within the same perceptual input.

KW - Magnitude

KW - Colour categories

KW - Duration perception

KW - Cross-linguistic

KW - Whorf

U2 - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.01.011

DO - 10.1016/j.actpsy.2018.01.011

M3 - Journal article

VL - 185

SP - 116

EP - 124

JO - Acta Psychologica

JF - Acta Psychologica

SN - 0001-6918

ER -