Cognitive abilities explaining age-related changes in time perception of short and long durations.

The current study investigated how the development of cognitive abilities explains the age-related changes in temporal judgment over short and long duration ranges from 0.5 to 30s. Children (5- and 9-year-olds) as well as adults were given a temporal bisection task with four different duration ranges: a duration range shorter than 1s, two duration ranges longer than 3s (4-8s and >15s), and an intermediate duration range (1.25-2.5s). Their cognitive abilities were also assessed using a series of neuropsychological tests. The results showed that temporal sensitivity improved with age for each duration range but that this improvement occurred earlier for the short durations than for the long durations. Furthermore, the results revealed that the age-related improvement in time sensitivity for the durations shorter than 1s was explained by the development of short-term memory span, whereas that for long durations was explained by the development of attention/executive functions. To summarize, the development of the abilities required to process long durations seems to be explained mainly by the development of attentional resources.