Excerpt from The American Journal of Psychology, 1902, Vol. 13

1. Introductory. What relation, if any, exists between the fluctuations of the judgment of time intervals and vaso-motor waves as shown by a finger plethysmograph? There were several suggestive facts that pointed to such a relationship. The plotted results of practice experiments in the estimation of intervals, made during the previous year, showed a fairly well defined tendency to regularity in the rise and fall of the curve corresponding to the large and small deviations of the judgment from the normal interval. As the length of these waves seemed to agree generally in length with the longer vaso-motor waves, a possible causal connection between the two series naturally suggested itself. There was also another source of suggestion. In an investigation into the relation between the fluctuations of visual attention and vaso-motor waves, made by Slaughter [Amcr. Jour, of Psych., Vol. XII, p. 313], it was found that the vaso-motor waves corresponded identically with the attention waves. One might, therefore, suppose that any activity dependent upon attention in so high degree as the estimation of intervals would be conditioned very largely by the vaso-motor waves that accompany it. A careful review of the literature of Time Sense has revealed but one reference to our particular problem.

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