Time Perception and Biological Motion: the role of configural information of social cues in temporal processing

Time perception is a fundamental cognitive function actively shaped by internal states and contextual factors, including the characteristics of the stimuli being processed. The present thesis explores how biological motion (BM) influences time perception, with a focus on walking direction and the configural properties of point-light display (PLD) stimuli. The first chapter reviews key theoretical models, experimental paradigms, neural substrates, and individual differences in temporal processing. The second chapter examines how social stimuli, such as emotional arousal, gaze direction, and biological motion, affect perceived duration through attentional and affective mechanisms. The third chapter presents an empirical study in which healthy adults completed a time bisection task using PLD stimuli representing a human figure walking leftward, rightward, or frontally under a Static condition. Participants were asked to judge the duration of the stimuli by comparing them to established short or long standard durations that they had previously learned. Furthermore, the spatial arrangement of response keys was manipulated to investigate the Spatial-Temporal Association of Response Codes (STEARC) effect. Although no significant effect was found across the tested conditions, the findings contribute to understanding the role of configural social information and movement directionality in shaping temporal judgments.