Stimulus Repetition and Time Perception: Repetition Priming or Repetition Suppression?

Repetition priming and repetition suppression are two phenomena that both are caused by repeated exposure to an identical stimulus. Repetition priming usually is under- lined by improved behavioral performance, whereas in timing, the repetition suppression is accompanied by increasing error in time two estimations. This study investigated the possible simultaneous concurrence of these phenomena. Twelve adult subjects participated in a temporal oddball task in which the repetition of standard stimuli was under experimental manipulation, compard to the target stimulus. Both changes in performance and time representation were analyzed by a repeated measure within group design. Repeated presentations of temporal stimulus either in visual or auditory modalities improved participants behavioral performance (repetition priming). At the same time, data analysis for time representation showed that despite different directions in the modalities, the oddball stimulus was able to distort the time representation, both in time contraction and time expantion. The findings proposed that although the repetition priming can lead to faster and more accurate response, but more time distortions after repeated stimuli can be explained by the shift occured in errors distribution.