Typical Personality Differences in Space-Time Perception: an explorative study

This work is aimed at investigating individual differences in time perception in a particular condition in which temporal judgments influenced spatial judgments (the Tau effect). In the Tau effect, participants had to make a comparative judgment of two spatial intervals defined by three successive dot of light while the corresponding temporal intervals vary independently. In a preliminary experiment (n=25) we tested a possible correlation between the Tau effect, evaluated using the original design developed by Benussi (Benussi, 1907; 1913), and personality traits, as assessed by the Big5 questionnaire. We found that temporal intervals influence the perception of spatial distances in the sense of “equation” (briefer temporal intervals corresponded to perceptual shorter spatial distances); Pearson correlations between accuracy and personality traits appeared significant for the factor relative to Emotional stability [r= 0.443 p=0.027]. Our data showed, nevertheless, that the Tau effect could be covered by some features of the stimuli, such as the direction of movement and the position of the standard stimulus. For this reason we planned a new experiment which improves the original experimental design by using an adaptive method (i.e. PEST, parameter estimation by sequential testing): preliminary data will be presented, supporting the hypothesis that individual differences in time perception are related with personality traits and that these differences could also influence the way in which the perception of time and space are intertwined.