Updating representations of temporal intervals

Effectively engaging with the world depends on accurate representations of the regularities that make up that world—what we call mental models. The success of any mental model depends on the ability to adapt to changes—to ‘update’ the model. In prior work, we have shown that damage to the right hemisphere of the brain impairs the ability to update mental models across a range of tasks. Given the disparate nature of the tasks we have employed in this prior work (i.e. statistical learning, language acquisition, position priming, perceptual ambiguity, strategic game play), we propose that a cognitive module important for updating mental representations should be generic, in the sense that it is invoked across multiple cognitive and perceptual domains. To date, the majority of our tasks have been visual in nature. Given the ubiquity and import of temporal information in sensory experience, we examined the ability to build and update mental models of time. We had healthy individuals complete a temporal prediction task in which intervals were initially drawn from one temporal range before an unannounced switch to a different range of intervals. Separate groups had the second range of intervals switch to one that contained either longer or shorter intervals than the first range. Both groups showed significant positive correlations between perceptual and prediction accuracy. While each group updated mental models of temporal intervals, those exposed to shorter intervals did so more efficiently. Our results support the notion of generic capacity to update regularities in the environment—in this instance based on temporal information. The task developed here is well suited to investigations in neurological patients and in neuroimaging settings.