Emotional Context Distorts Both Time and Space in Children ()
ABSTRACT
According to a generalized magnitude system, the representation of time, space and number relies on a common cognitive mechanism. However, in the context of negative emotional stimuli, temporal durations undergo a subjective overestimation, while numerosity judgments are underestimated. This finding clearly challenged the existence of a generalized magnitude system. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether angry faces biases both temporal and spatial estimates compared to neutral faces in children aged 5 - 6-year-old and 9 - 10-year-old. Children were to judge as short or long either the temporal interval or the distance separating two visual stimuli in a bisection task. Overall, the study suggests that negative emotion with high arousal (angry faces) leads to a distortion of both duration and distance. Such distortion is reported early in development, even before the maturation of time perception.
Share and Cite:
Fonseca Cruz, J., Vidaud-Laperrière, K., Brechet, C. and Charras, P. (2020) Emotional Context Distorts Both Time and Space in Children.
Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science,
10, 371-385. doi:
10.4236/jbbs.2020.109023.
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