Time perception is enhanced by task duration knowledge: Evidence from experienced swimmers

The present study deals with the impact on temporal estimation of previous knowledge about the duration of a specific task (referred to as “task duration knowledge”). Athletes were recruited in this study because they are assumed to have high levels of task duration knowledge in their discipline. In Experiment 1, 28 elite swimmers had to estimate the time it would take to swim a given distance using two different strokes for which they had different task duration knowledge levels. The swimmers estimated duration more accurately and with less uncertainty in the high-knowledge than in the low-knowledge condition. In Experiment 2, the swimmers had to produce 36 s of swimming in various contexts that altered the retrieval of their task duration knowledge, with and without a secondary task. When swimmers could not rely on their task duration knowledge, their productions were more affected by the secondary task. In Experiment 3, the swimmers were more precise at producing time when visualising something that they knew well (swimming) rather than something that they had never experienced, which shows that physical execution is not a mandatory requirement for observing the enhancement effect resulting from task duration knowledge. These three converging experiments suggest that task duration knowledge is strongly involved in time perception.