Auditory and visual differences in time perception.

The present experiment assessed intersensory differences in temporal judgments, that is, auditory stimuli are perceived as longer than physically equivalent visual stimuli. The results confirmed the intersensory difference. Auditorially defined intervals were experienced as longer than visually defined intervals. Auditory boundaries were perceived as longer than visual ones. An interaction of boundary modality and interval modality was obtained which suggested that auditorially defined intervals provided more temporal information about events occurring in close temporal proximity than visually defined intervals. It was hypothesized that cognitive factors, specifically stimulus complexity, would affect the auditory and visual systems differentially. This hypothesis was not substantiated, although highly complex stimuli were experienced as longer than those of low complexity.