What does "Adaptive display" power setting do?

I have found lots of references to the fact that "Adaptive display" lets
windows dynically adjust the timeout to turn off the display if a user
quickly touches a key or button to get the screen back on just after
timeout. However, that is all quite vague. I have seen others post related
questions on various web sites and never get an answer. Can anyone explain
for all of us:

1. Are these changes permanent or just for the current session?
2. Do the changes show up under "Turn off display after" power saving
setting?
3. If the changes do not show up under "Turn off display after," how do I
know what they are? Where are they available?

Overall, I like Vista and the additional config options, and even the
dynamic changes it will make for me, but I find it extremely frustrating
when there's no way to find anything that explains how it makes those
decisions or what it changes.

Thanks very much for any added insight,
Colin

[Jazz Inc]

Colin, I have found pretty much the same info. What I can make of it is that "Adaptive display" changes the display's power saving for specific moments and others relatively close.
i.e. I'm studding an architectural design for a long time. Then the screen turns off, but I'm still reading the same plans. So, I move the mouse a little, the screen comes back on. Now, the computer thinks, "Hey, he's really is still there. I'll give him an arbitrary amount of more minutes on top of the predefined minutes in the 'Turn off display after' setting."
From now until the next time the screen turns off is "Turn off display" + "arbitrary value" minutes. For every time this repeats, the computer adds more minutes until I don't move the mouse. Then the computer gets to think, "Good, he's gone. Now I can take over the world!"

OK, maybe that last part doesn't happen and it just resets to "Turn off display"'s value, but hopefully you get it.
What the random amount of time actually is, we'll never know until someone trial and error figures it out, or Microsoft talks. That last part makes me sad, because, I too, wish most of this stuff was annotated with actual definitions.

-Jazz