The effects of delayed display

Why do all punching machines increment the score from 0 and slow down at the end?

Isn’t it awkward given a sensor/computer can immediately calculate the score?

I can understand that this is coming from the metaphor of the high-striker strongman game.

The question is “is there a real benefit here?” If you think of it carefully, it is counter-intuitive in terms of productivity; it displays information after several seconds even though it is probably available immediately.

I can see people will say that it creates tension and it is more engaging. I somewhat agree but is it something that is measurable? If so what should we measure?

Why do we delay certain things? What’s the value of time that we lose? Or have we been wasting our time for fake value?

I found one interesting study about this.

>In 2011, a study by the Harvard Business School researchers Ryan Buell and Michael Norton found that people using a flight-search website actually preferred to wait longer for search results—provided they could watch a detailed progress display to see the site “working hard” to canvas each airline’s database.

http://www.people.hbs.edu/mnorton/buell%20norton%20hbr.pdf

This is clearly an HCI problem. Is it just a perceived value then?  How can we run a user study that can measure the benefits of delayed display? I would like to run a study that can measure the value of delay in interactive systems and the value of gradual display in visualization.