Time Perception: How Our Brains Shape Our Sense of Reality

Do you feel like time is slipping through your fingers as you age? Have you ever been in a situation where time seems to stand still? The enigma of time perception has been a subject of interest for centuries, yet it continues to fascinate scientists and philosophers alike. Our understanding of time perception has evolved over the years, and we now know that our brains play a crucial role in shaping how we experience time. As we age and gain new experiences, our perception of time undergoes changes that can alter our sense of reality.

Time perception, the subjective sense of how long an event or interval lasts, is influenced by several factors, including attention, emotion, memory, expectation, and context. Unlike the ticking of a clock, time perception is not constant or objective. It can vary from person to person and from situation to situation, making it a challenging study area for researchers.

Why does time seem to speed up as we grow older?

One of the most common perceptions of time is that time speeds up as we grow older. We feel like the days and the years have started to go by in a blur while we fondly remember our long childhood days when time just seemed to stretch on forever. Why this is so is still unclear, but a range of interesting theories exists.

Researchers suggest this might happen because the rate at which we process visual information slows as we age. This is because the networks of neurons in our brains become larger and more complex, and our nerves accumulate damage, causing resistance to the flow of electric signals.

As Rory Maizels puts it, "When we are young, each second of actual time is packed with many more mental images. Like a slow-motion camera that captures thousands of images per second, time appears to pass more slowly.”

Experienced Duration Versus Remembered Duration

The way in which we make time estimations is influenced by various factors, with the most significant one being whether we are informed beforehand that we will be required to estimate the duration of a specific task. These experimental approaches are known as prospective paradigms, in which participants are aware of the time estimation task and are typically instructed to provide their duration judgment immediately after the task has ended. In contrast, in retrospective paradigms, participants are not informed in advance that they will be asked to estimate event duration.

As retrospective judgments depend on memory traces of the event rather than direct perception, it is not surprising that people usually exhibit better time estimation performance in prospective tasks than in retrospective ones.

The Way We Estimate Duration Changes With Age

Estimating time can be challenging, unlike measuring distance, which can be done physically. Instead, we use mental shortcuts, or heuristics, to estimate time. These heuristics change as we age. For example, young children tend to think that more exciting or action-packed events last longer.

In contrast, adults tend to believe that boring activities last longer because they rely on "sampling heuristics," where they keep checking their watch and taking samples of time, leading them to believe that the activity is taking longer than it actually is.

Time perception is a complex and fascinating subject studied for centuries, yet there is still much to uncover about how our brains shape our sense of reality. As we age and gain new experiences, our perception of time changes, which can alter our understanding of the world around us. By continuing to study and understand time perception, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the way our minds shape our experiences of the world.