Action, attention, and temporal binding

Abstract

AbstractOutcome binding has long been understood as an illusion of timing perception, in which an action-effect is perceived as occurring earlier than it actually does. This illusion has been heavily investigated over the past two decades with regards to the mechanisms behind and potential applications. Here we present evidence in favour of understanding outcome binding as a spatial attentional effect, at least in part. In a series of 3 experiments, it was shown that an action-effect was preceded by a predictive attention shift in the classic Libet clock paradigm. The magnitude of attention shift predicted the size of outcome binding. When the attention shift was controlled for, binding also disappeared. Our study also calls for a reassessment of results obtained from the clock-like method in mental chronometry dating back to Wundt, as attention may well be a critical confounding factor in the interpretation of the results from these studies.