time warped unlocking the mysteries of time perception

In middle age, there are more routines and fewer firsts than in your youth. Going back to the holiday paradox and the two ways in which we view time can give us an explanation. And even with middle-aged people, they don’t describe the days as going fast as much as the weeks, months, and years. Time feels fastest for middle-aged people. But this is really only a description of what happens rather than an explanation. What is your favorite explanation for this?ĬH: Sometimes people say it’s because when you’re eight, a year is an eighth of your life, and when you’re 40 it’s a fortieth, so the time feels faster. Because we use the quantity of new memories to judge how much time has passed, once again time warps and we feel as though we’ve been away for ages.īW: Many people bemoan the fact that time speeds up as they get older. But when you look back on a holiday, you have created far more new memories for yourself than in a routine week at work. Holidays are packed with new and unusual experiences, which makes the days entertaining, so at the time they pass by fast. Usually these assessments match up, but in certain situations, such as holidays, they don’t. So which is it?ĬH: The reason for the holiday paradox is that we constantly judge time passing in two different ways: We ask ourselves how fast it feels right now, and we also look back after an event and judge it retrospectively. Extreme fear makes time feel as though it’s slowed down.īW: So many people can relate to the holiday paradox - the idea that a vacation passes way too quickly, yet looking back you feel like you’ve been gone forever. People who’ve been in a life-threatening situation like a car accident often describe the incident feeling as though it took ages, when in fact it was very fast.

Emotion is one of the chief factors affecting that perception.

Brain World: What role does emotion play in time perception?Ĭlaudia Hammond: The sensation that time is passing either fast or slowly is something that we construct for ourselves in our minds.

Time warped unlocking the mysteries of time perception