Passage of Time Judgements and Psychophysiology during Virtual Threat

The current study was designed to explore distortions in the perception of passage of time when the presence of threat is simulated using virtual reality (VR). 44 participants negotiated a large (13.6 × 8.4 m) virtual environment that exposed them to virtual height of 200m and a high probability of experiencing a virtual fall. Dependent variables included monitoring the movement of participants, subjective perceptions of passage of time and ambulatory psychophysiology, e.g., electrodermal activity (EDA), heart rate. Our analyses revealed that passage of time was perceived to decrease (i.e., time slowed down) for those participants who exhibited the higher levels of skin conductance (SCL).