Time-Based Expectancy in the Tactile Domain

When a target stimulus is probabilistically predicted by the duration of a preceding interval, participants typically adapt to this regularity: they respond faster to frequent than to infrequent combinations of interval duration and target in alternative forced-choice (AFC) tasks. This effect is referred to as time-based expectancy. Time-based expectancy has previously been demonstrated predominantly in scenarios employing visual targets. As human time processing differs between perceptual modalities, further investigation of time-based expectancy in other modalities needs to be addressed. In a pre-registered two-experiment study, we investigated time-based expectancy in the tactile modality. In an AFC task, participants responded by finger presses to vibrotactile finger stimulations. When both targets appeared equally often after both interval durations, we did not observe any pre-existing associations between duration and target (Exp. 1). When interval duration predicted the target, participants showed a significant time-based expectancy effect (Exp. 2). We discuss potential implications for the timing mechanisms underlying time-based expectancy in the tactile domain.