The temporal momentum effect reflects temporal cognition and cannot be entirely explained by central tendency and range effects

The Temporal Momentum Effect (TME) describes the systematic overestimation of reproduced estimates when adding two temporal intervals and underestimation when subtracting them. The TME has been attributed to a spatial component in the representation of time. However, previous studies on the TME used continuous white noise to indicate the operands, which confounds duration with stimulus energy. In Experiment 1, we separated sensory energy from temporal duration by presenting operands defined as the silent interval between a start and a stop signal. We replicated the TME both with continuous white noise and empty intervals, implying that it reflects temporal cognition. Experiment 2 tested the hypothesis that the TME merely reflects basic perceptual principles such as central tendency and range effects that govern behavior in various psychophysical domains. Under this hypothesis, the TME should have been mainly reflecting the impact of stimulus range. While Experiment 2 revealed a significant impact of stimulus range, the overall pattern of results did not entirely support this mechanism as the main driver of the TME. These results establish the TME as a cognitive bias that allows studying the principles that govern the mental manipulation of quantitative information such as time, space, and number.