Temporal duration processing across the lifespan: from adolescence to aging

Duration processing is influenced by task demands and cognitive functioning, but few studies have examined how it changes in different stages of life. The present study adopted an innovative paradigm that includes a traditional reproduction task and two more complex conditions, requiring participants to mentally halve (bisection) or double (doubling) temporal intervals. Four age groups spanning from adolescence to old age (n = 588) completed the task, and systematic biases in explicit duration judgments were analyzed. Results replicated and extended past findings, indicating that all participants, irrespective of their age, accurately reproduced time intervals, but made consistent errors when required to mentally manipulate durations. Older adults showed greater overestimation in the bisection condition compared to the other age groups, suggesting age-related differences in specific aspects of mental manipulation of durations. The findings offer initial insights into the stability of duration processing across the lifespan, while highlighting subtle individual differences across age groups.