Time Perception in Virtual Reality: Effects of Emotional Valence and Stress Level

Background a distraction task separated conditions. Valence and arousal were assessed with the Visual Analog Mood Scales, stress with the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS-10), and perceived duration with a verbal estimation task. Mixed-model ANOVAs evaluated main and interaction effects. Results: Valence reliably shaped perceived duration: calming VR led to overestimation, stressful VR to underestimation, and neutral VR to intermediate timing. Baseline stress level, as measured by PSS-10, neither altered timing nor interacted with valence. Nevertheless, the VR environments affected VAMS' mood metrics: calming environments elevated mood and reduced perceived stress, whereas stressful environments lowered mood and heightened stress. Conclusions: Findings support the AGM-attentionally demanding negative environments shorten perceived time-and the ICM-valence-linked arousal speeds or slows the pacemaker. Contrary to classical predictions, in VR, baseline stress did not distort duration, suggesting valence-driven attentional allocation outweighs pre-exposure stress levels. VR offers a controllable platform for dissecting time-perception mechanisms and advancing interventions that target emotion-related temporal distortions.