Emotion and time: How do different emotional stimuli affect perceived duration?

This study aimed to examine how emotional valence influences perceived duration. Specifically, it investigated whether positive, negative, and neutral stimuli—both verbal and visual—differ in their effects on time perception across varying presentation durations. Participants (N = 61; 53 females, 8 males) completed two separate tasks involving word and image stimuli, each presented for 500, 1,000, 1,500, or 2,000 milliseconds. After each presentation, participants estimated the stimulus duration using a horizontal scale. Verbal and visual stimuli were analyzed separately to determine the effects of emotional valence and presentation duration on perceived time. Negative words presented for 1,000 ms were perceived as lasting longer than neutral words, supporting the hypothesis that negative emotions extend subjective time. This finding aligns with previous research indicating that positive stimuli are perceived as shorter (Noulhiane et al., 2007), whereas negative stimuli are judged as longer in duration (Gable et al., 2022). No significant differences were found for image stimuli, likely due to variations in perceptual attributes such as color. These findings suggest that emotional content modulates time perception, particularly in verbal contexts. Consistent with the Attentional Gate Model, verbal negative stimuli may draw attention away from temporal processing, prolonging perceived duration. The results highlight the importance of emotional factors in cognitive timing mechanisms and suggest that future studies should further explore modality-based differences in time perception.