Overloading temporal memory.

This study tested the hypothesis that memory is a major source of variance in temporal processing. Participants categorized intervals as short or long. The number of base durations and interval types mixed within blocks of trials varied from 1 session to another. Results revealed that mixing 2 base durations within blocks increased categorization errors, but mixing 2 marker types did not. Results are attributed to the involvement of more than 1 memory representation, which is argued to show the critical role of memory in temporal processing. Because mixing modalities has no such effect, it was argued that modalities share a common representation in memory. Finally, there was no difference in the perceived duration of auditory and visually marked intervals, which is inconsistent with most reports on this effect. ((c) 2005 APA, all rights reserved).