Time flies when you’re having fun : investigating the influence of positive emotions and cognitive load on time perception in the retrospective paradigm

Abstract

The literature predicts a paradoxical effect on time perception under the influence of positive emotion and high cognitive load in the retrospective paradigm. High cognitive load is expected to increase time perception, whereas positive emotion is expected to decrease time perception. A quasi-experimental within-subjects design was devised that manipulated emotion on two levels (positive and neutral) as well as cognitive load on two levels (high and low) to investigate the effect on time perception. The findings of the study prove disappointing with no main effects witnessed along any of the four experimental conditions. Participants overestimated all the durations, but under the high cognitive load, positive emotion condition, the mean time perception scores where the closest to the chronological time.