Contingent aftereffects in duration judgments.

It has been shown that judged duration of tones depends on pitch (the kappa effect), on order of presentation (the time-order error), and on repetition (a negative duration aftereffect). Recently, a duration aftereffect contingent on pitch and a duration aftereffect contingent on order of presentation have been described. Our results suggest that these contingent duration aftereffects differ from the McCollough effect, a color aftereffect contingent on orientation, in two ways. They have a relatively short life and they are not symmetrical, in that while a pitch-contingent duration aftereffect could be established, a duration-contingent pitch aftereffect could not. In contrast, the McCollough effect persists for days and both an orientation-contingent color aftereffect and a color-contingent orientation aftereffect have been reported. A decision theory account for contingent duration aftereffects is outlined.