Abstract
As one of the most self-referential stimuli, one’s own name seems to be particularly prone to seize attention due to its intrinsic personal significance. Although it has been well documented in the auditory domain, how the processing of self-related information interacts with visual attention remains controversial. Here we report a self-induced perceptual distortion of time perception. In a temporal discrimination task, we found that the visual presentation duration of the participant’s own name was perceived significantly shorter compared with that of a stranger’s name of equal physical duration. Critically, this duration underestimation was not due to the familiarity of the own name, as a famous name showed no such effect when compared with a stranger’s name. Moreover, this temporal underestimation effect can also be observed with the self-face stimulus, suggesting a special role of self awareness in attentional modulation of time perception.
Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2012