The origin of Vierordt's law: The experimental protocol matters

Glasauer, Stefan and Shi, Zhuanghua (October 2021): The origin of Vierordt's law: The experimental protocol matters. In: PsyCh Journal, Vol. 10, No. 5: pp. 732-741

Abstract

In 1868, Karl Vierordt discovered one type of errors in time perception—an overestimation of short duration and underestimation of long durations, known as Vierordt's law. Here we reviewed the original study in its historical context and asked whether Vierordt's law is a result of an unnatural experimental randomization protocol. Using iterative Bayesian updating, we simulated the original results with high accuracy. Importantly, the model also predicted that a slowly changing random-walk sequence produces less central tendency than a random sequence with the same durations. This was validated by a duration reproduction experiment from two sequences (random and random walk) with the same sampled distribution. The results showed that trial-wise variation influenced the magnitude of Vierordt's law. We concluded that Vierordt's law is caused by an unnatural yet widely used experimental protocol.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Form of publication: Publisher's Version
• Keywords: Bayesian updating; central tendency; time perception; history of psychophysics; Vierordt's law
• Faculties: Psychology and Education Science > Department Psychology > General and Experimental Psychology
• Subjects: 100 Philosophy and Psychology > 150 Psychology
• Language: English