Auditory and visual differences in time perception? An investigation from a developmental perspective with neuropsychological tests

Adults and children (5- and 8-year-olds) performed a temporal bisection task with either auditory or visual signals and either a short (0.5–1.0 s) or long (4.0–8.0 s) duration range. Their working memory and attentional capacities were assessed by a series of neuropsychological tests administered in both the auditory and visual modalities. Results showed an age-related improvement in the ability to discriminate time regardless of the sensory modality and duration. However, this improvement was seen to occur more quickly for auditory signals than for visual signals and for short durations rather than for long durations. The younger children exhibited the poorest ability to discriminate time for long durations presented in the visual modality. Statistical analyses of the neuropsychological scores revealed that an increase in working memory and attentional capacities in the visuospatial modality was the best predictor of age-related changes in temporal bisection performance for both visual and auditory stimuli. In addition, the poorer time sensitivity for visual stimuli than for auditory stimuli, especially in the younger children, was explained by the fact that the temporal processing of visual stimuli requires more executive attention than that of auditory stimuli.

► We test the development of the ability to process auditory and visual stimulus durations.
► We assess by neuropsychological tests children’s working memory and attention capacities.
► The age-related improvement in time sensitivity occurs more quickly for auditory than for visual stimulus duration.
► The increase in working and attention capacities was the best predictor of developmental changes in time sensitivity.
► The temporal processing of visual stimuli requires more attention/executive abilities than that of auditory stimuli.