Time perception

inferred from information about relations between

the event in question and other events whose date or
time is known.
Another theory involves the brains subconscious tallying of pulses during a specic interval, forming a biological stopwatch. This theory alleges that the brain can
run multiple biological stopwatches at one time depending on the type of task one is involved in. The location
of these pulses and what these pulses actually consist of
is unclear.[4] This model is only a metaphor and does not
stand up in terms of brain physiology or anatomy.[5]

2 Philosophical perspectives

A contemporary quartz watch

Time perception is a eld of study within psychology

and neuroscience that refers to the subjective experience
of life: time, which is measured by someones own perception of the duration of the indenite and unfolding
of events. The perceived time interval between two successive events is referred to as perceived duration. Another persons perception of time cannot be directly experienced or understood, but it can be objectively studied and inferred through a number of scientic experiments. Time perception is a construction of the brain
that is manipulable and distortable under certain circumstances. These temporal illusions help to expose the underlying neural mechanisms of time perception.

Main article: Specious present

The specious present is the time duration wherein a state
of consciousness is experienced as being in the present.[6]
The term was rst introduced by the philosopher E. R.
Clay in 1882 (E. Robert Kelly),[7][8] and was further developed by William James.[8] James dened the specious
present to be the prototype of all conceived times... the
short duration of which we are immediately and incessantly sensible. In Scientic Thought (1930), C. D.
Broad further elaborated on the concept of the specious
present, and considered that the specious present may
be considered as the temporal equivalent of a sensory
datum.[8] A version of the concept was used by Edmund
Husserl in his works and discussed further by Francisco
Varela based on the writings of Husserl, Heidegger, and
Merleau-Ponty.[9]

Pioneering work, emphasizing species-specic dierences, was conducted by Karl Ernst von Baer. Experimental work began under the inuence of the psychophysical notions of Gustav Theodor Fechner with studies
of the relationship between perceived and measured time.

3 Neuroscientic perspectives

Theories

Although the perception of time is not associated with a

William J. Friedman (1993) also contrasted two theories
specic sensory system, psychologists and neuroscientists
for a sense of time:[1][2][3]
suggest that humans do have a system, or several complementary systems, governing the perception of time.[10]
The strength model of time memory. This posits a
Time perception is handled by a highly distributed system
memory trace that persists over time, by which one
involving the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and basal ganmight judge the age of a memory (and therefore how
glia.[11] One particular component, the suprachiasmatic
long ago the event remembered occurred) from the
nucleus, is responsible for the circadian (or daily) rhythm,
strength of the trace. This conicts with the fact that
while other cell clusters appear to be capable of shortermemories of recent events may fade more quickly
range (ultradian) timekeeping. There is some evidence
than more distant memories.
that very short (millisecond) durations are processed by
The inference model suggests the time of an event is dedicated neurons in early sensory parts of the brain[12]
1

2
Professor Warren Meck devised a physiological model
for measuring the passage of time. He found the representation of time to be generated by the oscillatory activity of cells in the upper cortex. The frequency of these
cells activity is detected by cells in the dorsal striatum at
the base of the forebrain. His model separated explicit
timing and implicit timing. Explicit timing is used in estimating the duration of a stimulus. Implicit timing is
used to gauge the amount of time separating one from an
impending event that is expected to occur in the near future. These two estimations of time do not involve the
same neuroanatomical areas. For example, implicit timing often occurs to achieve a motor task, involving the
cerebellum, left parietal cortex, and left premotor cortex.
Explicit timing often involves the supplementary motor
area and the right prefrontal cortex.[5]
Two visual stimuli, inside someones eld of view, can
be successfully regarded as simultaneous down to ve
milliseconds.[13][14][15]
In the popular essay Brain Time, by David Eagleman,
he explains that dierent types of sensory information
(auditory, tactile, visual, etc.) are processed at dierent
speeds by dierent neural architectures. The brain must
learn how to overcome these speed disparities if it is to
create a temporally unied representation of the external world: if the visual brain wants to get events correct timewise, it may have only one choice: wait for the
slowest information to arrive. To accomplish this, it must
wait about a tenth of a second. In the early days of television broadcasting, engineers worried about the problem
of keeping audio and video signals synchronized. Then
they accidentally discovered that they had around a hundred milliseconds of slop: As long as the signals arrived
within this window, viewers brains would automatically
resynchronize the signals. He goes on to say that This
brief waiting period allows the visual system to discount
the various delays imposed by the early stages; however, it
has the disadvantage of pushing perception into the past.
There is a distinct survival advantage to operating as close
to the present as possible; an animal does not want to live
too far in the past. Therefore, the tenth-of- a-second window may be the smallest delay that allows higher areas
of the brain to account for the delays created in the rst
stages of the system while still operating near the border
of the present. This window of delay means that awareness is postdictive, incorporating data from a window of
time after an event and delivering a retrospective interpretation of what happened.[16]

TYPES OF TEMPORAL ILLUSIONS

4 Types of temporal illusions

A temporal illusion is a distortion in the perception of
time, which occurs when the time interval between two
or more events is very narrow (typically less than a second). In such cases, a person may momentarily perceive
time as slowing down, stopping, speeding up, or running
backwards. Additionally, a person may misperceive the
temporal order of these events.
Short list of types of temporal illusions:
Telescoping eect: People tend to recall recent
events as occurring further back in time than they
actually did (backward telescoping) and distant
events as occurring more recently than they actually
did (forward telescoping).[19]
Vierordts law: Shorter intervals tend to be overestimated while longer intervals tend to be underestimated
Time intervals associated with more changes may
be perceived as longer than intervals with fewer
changes
Perceived temporal length of a given task may
shorten with greater motivation
Perceived temporal length of a given task may
stretch when broken up or interrupted
Auditory stimuli may appear to last longer than visual stimuli[20][21][22][23]
Time durations may appear longer with greater stimulus intensity (e.g., auditory loudness or pitch)
Simultaneity judgments can be manipulated by repeated exposure to non-simultaneous stimuli

4.1 Kappa eect

The Kappa eect is a form of temporal illusion veriable by experiment,[24] wherein the temporal duration
between a sequence of consecutive stimuli is thought
to be relatively longer or shorter than its actual elapsed
time, due to the spatial/auditory/tactile separation between each consecutive stimuli. The kappa eect can be
displayed when considering a journey made in two parts
that take an equal amount of time. Between these two
Experiments have shown that rats can successfully estiparts, the journey that covers more distance may appear
mate a time interval of approximately 40 seconds, deto take longer than the journey covering less distance,
[17]
spite having their cortex entirely removed.
This sugeven though they take an equal amount of time.
gests that time estimation may be a low level (subcortical)
[18]
process.

4.2 Chronostasis
Chronostasis is a type of temporal illusion in which the
rst impression following the introduction of a new event

4.4

Eects of emotional states

or task demand to the brain appears to be extended in

time.[25] For example, Chronostasis temporarily occurs
when xating on a target stimulus, immediately following a saccade (e.g., quick eye movement). This elicits an overestimation in the temporal duration for which
that target stimulus (i.e., postsaccadic stimulus) was perceived. This eect can extend apparent durations by up to
500 ms and is consistent with the idea that the visual system models events prior to perception.[26] The most wellknown version of this illusion is known as the stoppedclock illusion, wherein a subjects rst impression of the
second-hand movement of an analog clock, subsequent
to ones directed attention (i.e., saccade) to the clock,
is the perception of a slower-than-normal second-hand
movement rate (the seconds hand of the clock may seemingly temporarily freeze in place after initially looking at
it).[27][28][29][30]

whether the viewer perceives an increase or a decrease in

duration, also seems to be dependent upon the stimulus
used.[40]

The occurrence of chronostasis extends beyond the visual domain into the auditory and tactile domains.[31] In
the auditory domain, chronostasis and duration overestimation occur when observing auditory stimuli. One common example is a frequent occurrence when making telephone calls. If, while listening to the phones dial tone,
research subjects move the phone from one ear to the
other, the length of time between rings appears longer.[32]
In the tactile domain, chronostasis has persisted in research subjects as they reach for and grasp objects. After
grasping a new object, subjects overestimate the time in
which their hand has been in contact with this object.[28]
In other experiments, subjects turning a light on with a
button were conditioned to experience the light before
the button press.

4.4.2 Fear

4.3

Oddball eect

4.4 Eects of emotional states

4.4.1 Awe
Research has suggested the feeling of awe has the ability
to expand ones perceptions of time availability. Awe can
be characterized as an experience of immense perceptual
vastness that coincides with an increase in focus. Consequently, it is conceivable that ones temporal perception
would slow down when experiencing awe.[41]

Another temporal illusion, possibly related to the oddball

eect, occurs when a person perceives a potential threat
or mate (See Fight-or-ight response). For example, research suggests that time seems to slow down when a person skydives or bungee jumps,[42] or when a person suddenly and unexpectedly senses the presence of a potential predator or mate. This reported slowing in temporal perception may have been evolutionarily advantageous
because it may have enhanced our ability to intelligibly
make quick decisions in moments that were of critical
importance to our survival. However, even though observers commonly report that time seems to have moved
in slow motion during these events, it is unknown whether
this is a function of increased time resolution during the
event, or instead an illusion of remembering an emotionally salient event.

The slowing down of time during a life-threatening event

seems to be a retrospective assessment. Perceptual abilities have been tested during free-fall, and by measuring
their sensitivity to ickering stimuli during a frightening
experience, it has been shown that the peoples temporal resolution is not improved. Rather, their memories
are more densely packed during the frightening situation,
and therefore the event seems to have taken longer only
The oddball eect may serve an evolutionarily adapted
[43]
alerting function and is consistent with reports of time in retrospect.
slowing down in threatening situations. The eect seems People shown extracts from lms known to induce fear
to be strongest for images that are expanding in size on often overestimated the elapsed time of a subsequently
the retina, in other words, that are looming or approach- presented visual stimulus, whereas people shown clips
ing the viewer,[34][35][36] and the eect can be eradicated known to evoke feelings of sadness or emotionally-neutral
for oddballs that are contracting or perceived to be re- clips from weather forecasts and stock market updates
ceding from the viewer.[35] The eect is also reduced[34] showed no dierence. It is argued that fear prompts a
or reversed[36] with a static oddball presented amongst a state of arousal in the amygdala, which increases the rate
stream of expanding stimuli.
of a hypothesised internal clock. This could be the remechanism triggered by a
Initial studies suggested that this oddball-induced sub- sult of an evolved defensive
[44]
threatening
situation.
jective time dilation expanded the perceived duration
The perception of the duration of an event seems to be
modulated by our recent experiences. Humans typically
overestimate the perceived duration of the initial event in
a stream of identical events[33] and unexpected oddball
stimuli seem to be perceived as longer in duration, relative
to expected or frequently presented standard stimuli.[34]

of oddball stimuli by 3050%[34] but subsequent re- When exposed to a threat, three-year-old children were
search has reported more modest expansion of around observed to exhibit a similar tendency to overestimate
10%.[36][37][38][39] or less.[40] The direction of the eect, elapsed time.[5][45]

4
4.4.3

4
Empathy

The perception of another persons emotions can also

change our sense of time. The theory of embodied mind
(or cognition), as caused by mirror neurons, helps explain
how the perception of other peoples emotions have the
ability to change ones own sense of time. Embodied cognition hinges on an internal process that mimics or simulates anothers emotional state. For example, if person
#1 spends time with person #2 who speaks and walks incredibly slow, person #1s internal clock may slow down.
4.4.4

Depression

Depression may increase ones ability to perceive time accurately. One study assessed this concept by asking subjects to estimate the amount of time that passed during
intervals ranging from 3 seconds to 65 seconds.[46] Results indicated that depressed subjects more accurately
estimated the amount of time that had passed than nondepressed patients; non-depressed subjects overestimated
the passing of time. This dierence was hypothesized to
be because depressed subjects focused less on external
factors that may skew their judgement of time. The authors termed this hypothesized phenomenon depressive
realism.[46]

4.5

TYPES OF TEMPORAL ILLUSIONS

be approximately 1/20,000 of their life. This helps to explain why a random, ordinary day may therefore appear
longer for a young child than an adult.[53] The short-term
time appears to go faster by square root of their age.[54] So
a year experienced by a 55-year-old would pass approximately 2 times more quickly than a year experienced
by an 11-year-old. If long-term time perception is based
solely on the proportionality of a persons age, then the
following four periods in life would appear to be quantitatively equal: age 5 to 10 (1x), age 10 to 20 (2x), age 20
to 40 (4x), age 40 to 80 (8x).[53]
The common explanation is that most external and internal experiences are new for young children, while most
experiences are repetitive for adults. Children have to be
extremely engaged (i.e. dedicate many neural resources
or signicant brain power) in the present moment because they must constantly recongure their mental models of the world to assimilate it, and properly behave
from within. On the contrary, adults may rarely step outside of their mental habits and external routines. When
an adult frequently experiences the same stimuli, their
brain renders them invisible because the brain has already suciently and eectively mapped those stimuli.
This phenomenon is known as neural adaptation. Thus,
the brain will record fewer densely rich memories during
these frequent periods of disengagement from the present
moment.[55] Consequently, the subjective perception is
often that time passes by at a faster rate with age.

Changes with age

Psychologists have found that the subjective perception of

the passing of time tends to speed up with increasing age
in humans. This often causes people to increasingly underestimate a given interval of time as they age. This fact
can likely be attributed to a variety of age-related changes
in the aging brain, such as the lowering in dopaminergic
levels with older age; however, the details are still being
debated.[47][48][49] In an experimental study involving a
group of subjects aged between 19 and 24 and a group
between 60 and 80, the participants abilities to estimate
3 minutes of time were compared. The study found that
an average of 3 minutes and 3 seconds passed when participants in the younger group estimated that 3 minutes
had passed, whereas the older groups estimate for when
3 minutes had passed came after an average of 3 minutes
and 40 seconds.[50][51]
Very young children literally live in time before gaining
an awareness of its passing. A child will rst experience
the passing of time when he or she can subjectively perceive and reect on the unfolding of a collection of events.
A childs awareness of time develops during childhood
when the childs attention and short-term memory capacities formthis developmental process is thought to be
dependent on the slow maturation of the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus.[5][52]

4.6 Eects of drugs

Further information: Cannabis and time perception
Stimulants produce overestimates of time duration,
whereas depressants and anesthetics produce underestimates of time duration.
Psychoactive drugs can alter the judgement of time.
These include traditional psychedelics such as LSD,
psilocybin, and mescaline as well as the dissociative class of psychedelics such as PCP, ketamine and
dextromethorphan. At higher doses time may appear to
slow down, speed up or seem out of sequence. In a 2007
study, psilocybin was found to signicantly impair the
ability to reproduce interval durations longer than 2.5 seconds, signicantly impair synchronizing motor actions
(taps on a computer keyboard) to regularly occurring
tones, and impair the ability to keep tempo when asked
to tap on a key at a self-paced but consistent interval.[56]
In 1955, British MP Christopher Mayhew took mescaline
hydrochloride in an experiment under the guidance of his
friend, Dr Humphry Osmond. On the BBC documentary The Beyond Within, he described that half a dozen
times during the experiment, he had a period of time
that didn't end for [him]".

One day to an 11-year-old would be approximately Stimulants can lead both humans and rats to overesti1/4,000 of their life, while one day to a 55-year-old would mate time intervals,[57][58] while depressants can have the

4.9

Flash-lag eect

opposite eect.[59] The level of activity in the brain of

neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine
may be the reason for this.[60] Dopamine has a particularly strong connection with ones perception of time.
Drugs that activate dopamine receptors speed up ones
perception of time, while dopamine antagonists cause one
to feel that time is passing slowly.[5][61]

line. However, congenitally blind subjects showed no

trace of temporal order judgement reversal after crossing the arms. These results suggest that tactile signals
taken in by the congenitally blind are ordered in time
without being referred to a visuo-spatial representation.
Unlike the congenitally blind subjects, the temporal order judgements of the late-onset blind subjects were impaired when crossing the arms to a similar extent as nonblind subjects. These results suggest that the associations
between tactile signals and visuo-spatial representation is
4.7 Eects of body temperature
maintained once it is accomplished during infancy. Some
Time perception may speed up as body temperature rises, research studies have also found that the subjects showed
reduced decit in tactile temporal order judgements when
and slow down as body temperature lowers.[62]
the arms were crossed behind their back than when they
were crossed in front.[65][66][67]

4.8

Reversal of temporal order judgment

Numerous experimental ndings suggest that temporal

order judgments of actions preceding eects can be reversed under special circumstances. Experiments have
shown that sensory simultaneity judgments can be manipulated by repeated exposure to non-simultaneous stimuli.
In an experiment conducted by David Eagleman, a temporal order judgment reversal was induced in subjects by
exposing them to delayed motor consequences. In the experiment, subjects played various forms of video games.
Unknown to the subjects, the experimenters introduced a
xed delay between the mouse movements and the subsequent sensory feedback. For example, a subject may not
see a movement register on the screen until 150 milliseconds after the mouse had moved. Participants playing
the game quickly adapted to the delay and felt as though
there was less delay between their mouse movement and
the sensory feedback. Shortly after the experimenters removed the delay, the subjects commonly felt as though
the eect on the screen happened just before they commanded it. This work addresses how the perceived timing of eects is modulated by expectations, and the extent to which such predictions are quickly modiable.[63]
In an experiment conducted by Haggard and colleagues
in 2002, participants pressed a button that triggered a
ash of light - at a distance - after a slight delay of 100
milliseconds.[64] By repeatedly engaging in this act, participants had adapted to the delay (i.e., they experienced
a gradual shortening in the perceived time interval between pressing the button and seeing the ash of light).
The experimenters then showed the ash of light instantly
after the button was pressed. In response, subjects often
thought that the ash (the eect) had occurred before the
button was pressed (the cause). Additionally, when the
experimenters slightly reduced the delay, and shortened
the spatial distance between the button and the ash of
light, participants had often claimed again to have experienced the eect before the cause.

4.9 Flash-lag eect

In an experiment, participants were told to stare at an
x symbol on a computer screen whereby a moving
blue doughnut-like ring repeatedly circled the xed x
point.[68][69][70] Occasionally, the ring would display a
white ash - for a split second - that physically overlapped
the rings interior. However, when asked what was perceived, participants responded that they saw the white
ash lagging behind the center of the moving ring. In
other words, despite the reality that the two retinal images were actually spatially aligned, the ashed object was
usually observed to trail a continuously moving object in
space - a phenomenon referred to as the ash-lag eect.
The rst proposed explanation, called the 'motion extrapolation' hypothesis, is that the visual system extrapolates
the position of moving objects - but not ashing objects
- when accounting for neural delays (i.e., the lag time between the retinal image and the observers perception of
the ashing object). The second proposed explanation by
David Eagleman and Sejnowski, called the 'latency difference' hypothesis, is that the visual system processes
moving objects at a faster rate than ashed objects. In
the attempt to disprove the rst hypothesis, David Eagleman conducted an experiment in which the moving ring
suddenly reverses directions to spin in the other way as
the ashed object briey appears. If the rst hypothesis were correct, we expect that, immediately following
reversal, the moving object would be lagging behind the
ashed object. However, the experiment reveals the opposite - immediately following reversal, the ashed object was lagging behind the moving object. As a result,
the majority are now in support of the 'latency dierence'
hypothesis.

4.10 Eects of clinical disorders

Several experiments also suggest that temporal order

judgement of a pair of tactile stimuli, delivered in rapid Parkinsons disease,[71] schizophrenia,[72] and attention
succession, one to each hand, is noticeably impaired decit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)[73] have been
(i.e., misreported) by crossing the hands over the mid- linked to abnormalities in dopamine levels in the brain

as well as to noticeable impairments in time perception. Neuropharmacological research indicates that the
internal clock, used to time durations in the seconds-tominutes range, is linked to dopamine function in the basal
ganglia.[72] Studies in which children with ADHD are
given time estimation tasks shows that time passes very
slowly for them. Children with Tourettes Syndrome, for
example, who need to use the pre-frontal cortex just behind the forehead to help them control their tics, are better at estimating intervals of time just over a second than
other children.
In his book Awakenings, Oliver Sacks discusses how
patients with Parkinsons disease experience decits in
their awareness of time and tempo. For example, Mr E,
when asked to clap his hands steadily and regularly did
so for the rst few claps before clapping faster and irregularly; culminating in an apparent freezing of motion.
When he nished, Mr E asked if his observers were glad
he did it correctly to which they replied no. Mr E was
oended by this because to him, his claps were regular
and steady. When given L-DOPA, these decits are lessened or subside entirely depending on the dose. This case
not only shows that Parkinsons disease is related to time
perception decits but it also demonstrates how dopamine
is involved.[74]
Dopamine is also theorized to play a role in the attention
decits present with attention decit hyperactivity disorder. Specically, dopaminergic systems are involved in
working memory and inhibitory processes, both of which
are believed central to ADHD pathology.[73] Children
with ADHD have also been found to be signicantly impaired on time discrimination tasks (telling the dierence
between two stimuli of dierent temporal lengths) and
respond earlier on time reproduction tasks (duplicating
the duration of a presented stimulus) than controls.[75]

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Dyschronometria
Benjamin Libet

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Le Poidevin, Robin, "The Experience and Perception of Time", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2004 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
Hodder, A. (1901). The adversaries of the sceptic;
or, The specious present, a new inquiry into human
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Underwood G, Swain RA (1973). Selectivity of
attention and the perception of duration. Perception. 2 (1): 1015. doi:10.1068/p020101. PMID
4777562.

8 External links
The Logarithmic Time Perception Hypothesis
NeuroQuantology Special Issue: Time, Timing, and
the Brain
Time perception research at the University of
Manchester
Time Sense: Polychronicity and Monochronicity
A Cognitive Model of Retrospective Duration Estimations, Hee-Kyung Ahn, et al., March 7, 2006.
Time, Force, Motion, and the Semantics of Natural
Languages, Wolfgang Wildgen, Antwerp Papers in
Linguistics, 2003/2004.
Can Time Slow Down?
Interactions emerge between biological clocks,
The Pharmaceutical Journal, Vol 275 No 7376
p644, 19 November 2005 Registration required.
Picture Space Time helps to add Time Perception to
Photographs using sound

10

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