Temporal information reduces children's pain reports during a multiple-trial cold pressor procedure

An experiment was conducted to determine whether providing children with information about the time remaining in each of 9 cold pressor trials would modify their pain reports. The study design included an experimental group and 2 control groups. The experimental group was given visual information about time remaining in each cold pressor trial using cartoon images presented on a computer screen. Control groups viewed either no images or randomly presented images. Temporal information reduced children's self-reported pain during short (10 to 15 s) duration cold pressor trials, but did not increase the number of trials completed. This study suggests that providing time-remaining information during brief clinical procedures may decrease children's discomfort.