Temporal Displacement

“Temporal displacement” (Zeitverschiebung) is a term coined by Wilhelm Wundt [1] to denote the fact that in some cases perceived simultaneity does not correspond to physical contemporaneousness, and that sequences of very brief stimuli may be perceived as simultaneity or as reversed successions. He thought that in such cases there occurred a “displacement” of physical stimuli in phenomenal time (positive, when they are perceived after their physical occurrence; negative when they are perceived in advance). He investigated the phenomenon with the Complicationspendel shown in Figure 1.