Time Perception Lab · Research

How the mind measures, remembers and experiences time

Over the past decade, our research has investigated the mechanisms of duration judgements, differences across the senses, retrospective time, music and the experience of psychological time.

Current focus

Retrospective time and temporal memory

How do we judge the duration of an event when we did not know in advance that we would be asked about time? Retrospective judgements raise questions about what is stored in memory, how experiences are organised and whether timing mechanisms used in prospective tasks also contribute to remembered duration.

Ruoyu Zhang’s doctoral work examines these questions using behavioural experiments and computational approaches. Related MRes research by Puhan Hou has investigated longer intervals presented in auditory, visual, audiovisual and silent conditions. This programme extends the lab’s longstanding interest in how information processing and memory shape temporal experience.

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Research themes · 2016–2026

Research from the past decade

Established programmes and questions that continue to inform our work.

01 / Mechanisms of timing

Internal clocks and repetitive stimulation

Many models of human timing propose an internal process that accumulates temporal information. Our experiments have used repetitive auditory clicks, visual flicker and other manipulations to test whether changes in clock speed explain duration judgements, temporal sensitivity and reaction times. The results also identify limits to simple pacemaker explanations.

Selected publication

Wearden, J. H., Williams, E. A., & Jones, L. A. (2017). What speeds up the internal clock? Effects of clicks and flicker on duration judgements and reaction time. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 70, 488–503.

Publications from 2017 →
02 / Sensory timing

Auditory, visual and tactile duration

Time is not judged identically across the senses. The lab has examined modality differences, the filled-duration illusion and the contribution of sensory stimulation to perceived duration. Rather than treating these effects as proof of faster or slower clocks, we test how well competing explanations account for the pattern of results.

Selected publication

Williams, E. A., Yüksel, E. M., Stewart, A. J., & Jones, L. A. (2019). Modality differences in timing and the filled-duration illusion: Testing the pacemaker rate explanation. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81, 823–845.

Publications from 2019 →
03 / Music & performance

Musical structure and temporal experience

Work with Michelle Phillips and colleagues at the Royal Northern College of Music has explored how listeners perceive musical duration and segmentation, alongside projects on performance anxiety, timing and physiological responses during music-making. Musical experience offers a valuable setting for asking how expectation and event structure organise psychological time.

Selected publication

Phillips, M., Wilcoxson, M., Howard, E., du Sautoy, M., Willcox, P., Jones, L., Stewart, A., & De Roure, D. (2020). What determines the perception of segmentation in contemporary music? Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 1001.

Publications from 2020 →
04 / Psychological time

Duration, passage of time and everyday distortions

Judging how long an interval lasted is not the same as judging how quickly time seemed to pass. This distinction is central to our work on temporal experience, and to wider questions about attention, emotion, stress, ageing and unusual circumstances. We examine what laboratory models can—and cannot—tell us about experiences outside the laboratory.

Selected publication

Ogden, R., Wearden, J. H., & Jones, L. A. (2024). Current perspectives on distortions to time. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77, 1797–1799.

Publications from 2024 →
Dedicated project page

Time perception and autism

Our three-year ESRC-funded programme investigated timing in autistic and non-autistic adults using psychophysical tasks, questionnaires, interviews and computational approaches. The work addressed both basic timing performance and reported experiences of time in everyday life.

The original study is complete, and its papers and background material are retained on a separate page. That page will also be the home for future related work.

Explore the autism research
Explore the evidence

Publications & presentations

Read the lab’s journal papers, chapters, conference contributions and research posters.

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