A STUDY ON PROSPECTIVE AND RETROSPECTIVE EVALUATIONS ON TIME PERCEPTION

Abstract

Do the days feel long when you are working towards your next pay cheque? Yet when you are reminiscing about your college days, the years feel short? The above examples point towards an intriguing but often less research area on time perception, that nature of time perception differs between evaluating past and ongoing events. A total of 3 studies were conducted for this paper, of which prospective and retrospective evaluations under different conditions was examined to determine its impact on perceived time. Speed velocities, coupled with background music were investigated by a Pilot Study and Study 1, while number of service stages was examined by Study 2. The findings suggest that prospective evaluations are prone to primacy effects; hence an initial fast processing speed pattern would result into shorter perceived time. On the other hand, for retrospective evaluations, recency effects are more pronounced and thus a fast ending processing speed pattern would lead to shorter perceived time. These effects are heightened with the addition of background music. As for service stages, when they are perceived as milestones in guiding the consumer to their end-state destination, prospective evaluations coupled with more service stages would reduce perceived time. When service stages are considered as obstacles in hindering consumers to their end-state destination, retrospective evaluations with more service stages would increase perceived time. . Based on the findings, implications were drawn and various aspects of future research to further the study were proposed.