Volume 7 No 1 (2009)
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Duration Magnitude and Memory Resource Demand
Kwun-Kei Ng, Pelen P. Y. Yip, Yong Hao Soh, Trevor B. Penney
Abstract
Whether duration magnitude modulates the cognitive resources required to
represent that duration in memory is a fundamental question about the cognitive
architecture of interval timing. The amplitudes of the Event-Related Potential
(ERP) Slow Waves (SWs) elicited when participants maintain representations of
different durations (e.g., 1500 versus 3000 ms) in memory may provide an
answer to this question because increased positive SWs have been associated
with increased working memory demands in studies of verbal and spatial
memory. Here, participants judged whether a probe stimulus (S2) was the same
duration as the preceding sample stimulus (S1). SWs recorded during a 2 s delay
interval between S1 and S2 presentation were significantly more positive in the
3000 ms condition than in the 1500 ms condition, particularly at frontal-central
electrode locations. This result suggests that the magnitude of the duration to be
remembered influences the cognitive resources required to represent that
duration in working memory.
Keywords
interval-timing, electrophysiology, event-related potential, slow waves, time perception
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