The relations between construal level and time estimation: The effects of intentionality

In this thesis, it was aimed to examine the perception of time in the context of construal level and intentionality. Furthermore, subjective time perception of participants was evaluated in order to see whether it was related to duration estimation. Accordingly, three different experiments were conducted. In general, it was expected that time estimation will differ according to construal level and intentionality (having a goal in the task). The first study focused on predicting how much time the participant would need for completing the task. Besides, the second study focused on the duration estimation of the completed task of participants and the deviation between the time they actually completed the task and the time they estimated. Lastly, the third study was conducted to verify previous studies without intentionality condition. The research sample consisted of 105 students (85 female and 20 male) for the first experiment and 108 students (82 female and 26 male) for the second experiment, studying at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, a state university in Ankara. The third experiment conducted at Haliç University, a private university in Istanbul, with 44 students (21 female and 23 male). The time perception in the experiment was studied by verbal time estimation. Besides, mindset and intentionality were manipulated. Mann-Whitney U and ANOVA tests were used to test the difference between groups and Spearman's Correlation was used to test the relationship. According to the results, only the first hypothesis of the first experiment corresponded with the literature that different mindsets lead to differences in the estimation of time, but this was in the opposite direction of the hypothesis. Participants in the concrete mindset made longer estimates than those in abstract mindset did. Any of the other hypotheses were not supported. The possible variables, especially the universality of construal level theory and cultural factors, which are likely to affect the results, are presented and limitations of the study are discussed within the context of the related literature. Keywords: Construal level theory, duration estimation, intentionality, time perception, subjective time