The effect of waiting environment and perceived atmosphere on temporal experience

Abstract: Previously, it was shown that the environment of a waiting room can influence the perception of waiting time. The goal of the current study was to examine how waiting environment influ-ences temporal experience, and to explore which dimensions of room atmosphere predict the perception of waiting time. Twenty-four participants spent 90 minutes in an ordinary doctor’s waiting room, and on a different day, another 90 minutes in a sacral room of a distinctly con-templative character. As dependent variables, we assessed various aspects of temporal experi-ence, including passageof- time judgments, time awareness judgments, and duration judg-ments for the waiting time. As independent variables, we assessed the perceived atmosphere of the waiting environment along different dimensional scales, including detachment, cozi-ness, liveliness, tenseness, and valence. The results suggest that perceived valence, detach-ment, and tenseness of a room predict passageof- time judgments and time awareness judg-ments. However, more research is needed to confirm these results. Furthermore, the results were likely biased towards an increased time awareness due to the within-subjects design of the study. Nevertheless, a possible explanation could be that especially unpleasant and de-tached rooms draw one’s attention towards time, whereas more pleasant and less detached rooms allow attention to be deployed on the nontemporal aspects of the situation

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• Extent: Online-Ressource
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Advances in cognitive psychology. - 18, 2 (2022) , 132-143, ISSN: 1895-1171

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Freiburg
• (who): Universität
• (when): 2023
• Creator: Aeschbach, Vanessa Marie-Jane ; Ehret, Sonja ; Post, Joanna ; Rueß, Miriam ; Thomaschke, Roland

Further information

• DOI: 10.5709/acp-0351-3
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:25-freidok-2352889
• Rights: Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 10:48 AM CEST