duction velocity, or the speed at which brain cells pulse, slows down as humans age, causing time to flow differently when they are older. As the brain slows down with age, perception of time slows down for aging people, so everything around them appears to go faster. Since objective time itself is the same, more seems to occur, which is shown as the elder subjects believe that 90 seconds of events happened within 60 seconds of real time, and time appears to go faster. The proportional explanation states that when a human is, for example, six years old, two years represent one-third of their life. When the same person is sixty-three years old, two years represents only 1/32 of their life so, proportionally, time means less and goes faster. The neurological explanation links back to the idea that new events receive more attention and detail, and are thus perceived to have a longer duration; the brain uses more energy to remember these details. Since there is much more to remember, the event seems to be longer, because humans subconsciously tend to assume that a set series of events takes a certain set amount of time. That’s why a forty-fifth birthday seems shorter than a sixth birthday—it is not new to the viewer and has less apparent detail [4]. Larger temporal phenomena are not the only ones that affect humans, however. One smaller phenomenon is the stopped-clock illusion, referring to how the second-hand of a clock seems to stop when stared at. This illusion is triggered by quick eye movements, occurring when there is a disconnect in the communication between sight and recognition in the brain. It suggests that reacting to new visual stimuli takes longer than reacting to known stimuli and is an exaggeration of the oddball effect, which takes place any time the brain experiences something unfamiliar. Much like new experiences, the brain pays more attention and takes note of more detail, so time appears to slow down. It is apparent with a new or stressful stimulus like a potential threat or mate. One theory suggests that the “fight or flight” response heavily involves the oddball effect, as the process of “slowing down” gives an advantage to making critical decisions because it gives humans “more” time to think and act. In fact, David Eagleman has proven that the brain processes information much faster in high-adrenaline situations [5]. Another experiment suggests that psychological time does not pass more slowly but is instead a trick of memory. Participants in this experiment underwent Suspended Catch Air Device (SCAD) Diving, where they free-fell for fifteen stories and were given a perceptual chronometer, which is similar to a wristwatch that flashes numbers a little too fast to read on the
ground. If time were actually passing more slowly, the participants would be able to read the numbers. Since they were not able to read the chronometer, it appears that time did not actually slow down. However, the participants reported a duration much longer than the real-time duration of the fall. The results suggest that, in a life-ordeath situation, the brain becomes hyperactive and records many more details than usual, so time seems slower upon reflection—a trick of memory [6]. Although real time does not actually slow down, relative person-to-person perception makes it seem like it does. Einstein suggested that time can be relative from person to person based on factors like velocity. The ideas behind psychological time expand on his theory, implying that an elephant’s time, a fly’s time, or even the time experienced by two humans can differ drastically. Time is dependent on emotions, activities, hormones, and a host of mysterious phenomena. Whatever the causes may be, temporal perception deviates from a clock, so each psychological second may not last for the same duration as the tick of a second hand. It seems that time can be relative in more ways than one.
References [1] “Quirks in Time Perception”. www.psychologytoday.com/blog/alternativetruths/201004/quirks-in-time-perception (2010) [2] “Psychology of Time”. www.exactlywhatistime.com/psychology-of-time/ (2017) [3] “The Psychology of Time”. www.jyi.org/issue/the-psychology-of-time/ (2004) [4] “Why Does Time Fly By As You Get Older”. www.npr.org/sections/ krulwich/2010/02/01/122322542/why-does-time-fly-by-as-you-get-older (2004) [5] “Temporal Illusions”. www.exactlywhatistime.com/psychology-of-time/ temporal-illusions/ (2017) [6] “Why A Brush With Death Triggers The Slow-Mo Effect”. www.npr.org/ templates/story/story.php?storyId=129112147 (2010)
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