Comparison of temporal judgments in sighted and visually impaired children

Aim: We studied visually impaired and blind children to investigate the effects of visual damage on time perception.Methods: Sixty-three children (11 blind, 16 visually impaired, 20 sighted and 16 sighted but blindfolded) performed a temporal bisection task, which consisted of judging different temporal intervals presented in the auditory modality.Results: The visually impaired children showed lower constant error than sighted children but higher variability (Weber ratio). The blindfolded children had a temporal estimation comparable to the clinical groups and time sensitivity comparable to the controls.Conclusion: These findings are interpreted in the light of inter-modality interference, assuming that the coexistence of both sensory modalities, present only in controls, leads to a trade-off between the two senses with an indirect contribution of sight, which does not happen either in the clinical groups or in the blindfolded children, despite the single sensory task.