Chronotype Alignment and Time Perception
Circadian Match and Mismatch Effects on Temporal Cognition in Morning- and Evening-Type Adults
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
240 participants
Sep 1, 2025
INTERVENTIONAL
Conditions
Summary
People differ in chronotype - whether they function best in the morning ("larks") or the evening ("owls"). This study asks whether the match or mismatch between a person's chronotype and the time of day at which they are tested changes how they perceive time. Healthy morning-type and evening-type adults at three sites (Aarhus, Denmark; Changzhou, China; and Hong Kong) complete the same battery of perception and cognition tasks twice - once in the early morning (about 08:00) and once late in the evening (about 22:00), in counterbalanced order. The primary outcome is the accuracy (signed bias) of time-perception judgements; the key comparison is the interaction between chronotype and time of day (the "synchrony effect"). Secondary measures include timing precision, the subjective passage of time, sleepiness, mood, colour perception (with and without blue-blocking glasses) and perceptual decision-making. By testing the same protocol across three cultures and latitudes, the study examines whether circadian match/mismatch effects on temporal cognition generalise across populations.
Eligibility
Inclusion Criteria6
- Healthy adult, 18-40 years
- Clear morning-type or evening-type on the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ-SA); intermediate types excluded (state exact cut-offs, e.g. evening-type 41 or below, morning-type 59 or above)
- Normal or corrected-to-normal visual acuity
- Normal colour vision (e.g. Ishihara screening)
- Fluent in the testing-site language (Danish, Chinese, or English)
- Able to attend both an early-morning (about 08:00) and a late-evening (about 22:00) session
Exclusion Criteria7
- Intermediate chronotype (MEQ in the middle band)
- Night or rotating shift work in the past 3 months, or recent trans-meridian travel (more than 2 time zones in the past 4 weeks)
- Diagnosed sleep disorder (e.g. insomnia, sleep apnoea)
- Current psychiatric or neurological disorder
- Use of sleep medication or psychoactive or CNS-active drugs
- Colour-vision deficiency
- Substance-use disorder
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Interventions
Full perception and cognition battery administered shortly after habitual wake (about 08:00): time-perception tasks (interval production/estimation, duration discrimination, passage-of-time judgement), state measures (sleepiness, mood, arousal), colour tasks, a perceptual conformity task, and a vigilance task.
The identical battery administered late in the evening (about 22:00), enabling within-participant comparison of the same measures at the two times of day.
Locations(1)
View Full Details on ClinicalTrials.gov
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NCT07677111