Do peoples' concepts of time differ? Has this ever been scientifically proven?

Question

For example, does one year feel longer for one person than it does for another? Is this linked to any kind of chemical in the brain or body?

Also...when we have a good time somewhere, things seem to go by more quickly than they do when we're not enjoying ourselves. Is any of this linked to a chemical or mechanism that changes our perception of time?

Have any studies ever been done on this or is there any kind of scientific or medical explanation?

Answer 1

Concepts of time can differ within the same person. A person having fun wants time to go slow, so it feels like time is moving faster. A person who is running late wants time to run slow, but you know in those situations time is at it's fastest! A person who doesn't want to be at work, time goes by soooo slow. And for a person who's everyday feels the same.. Well, it seems to go faster. Days feel like weeks, but weeks feel like days.

Answer 2

I don't think it's chemical in nature, at least not so far as to say that if you injected something into people, they would suddenly start to perceive time differently and in the same way. Our perception of time depends on the individual and the situation. When we enjoy ourselves, for instance, our attention is not on the passage of time, but on the experience that gives us pleasure. When we are bored, our minds are not as occupied, so we pay more attention to how long we've been sitting there, bored out of our minds.

As for the passage of longer periods of time, like a year, I think it's related, but also has to do with an individual's perception of their quality of life. I'd say a year would feel longer if it was full of unpleasant events or drudgery, because we perceive suffering as seeming to last forever. A year punctuated by notable happy events is broken up into smaller chunks, and will probably seem shorter, though most people of my acquaintance don't really keep track of that length of time -- the maximum most of them really talk about is whether they had a good or bad week.

Answer 3

G'day The Answer,

Thank you for your question.

In cognitive research, there are two general types of time-perception tasks. Participants are usually either asked to remember the duration of a particular event ("remembered duration"), in which case the participants do not learn that they must make a temporal judgement until after the event has occurred, or they are asked prior to the event to make a judgement about how long the event lasts ("perceived duration"). Different factors affect performance in the two tasks differently, and research often consists in contrasting the effects of a particular factor on the two tasks. In neuroscience, the most common type of time-perception tasks are ones that require people to measure the timing of either a perceptual stimuli or the performance of a motor task. Most of the research will use remembered or perceived duration tasks.

Enjoyment is linked to brain chemicals although the process is not fully understood yet. For example, experiments have measured perception of time for people giving up smoking.

Regards

Answer 4

properly, it style of feels you're onto the respond of your first question in simple terms in the kind you asked the 2d. If an afternoon is going quicker as quickly as we are lively and fairly as quickly as we are satisfied approximately it, then the assumption of a 300 and sixty 5 days must be the comparable way. to this point as chemical ingredients pass, i'm able to basically provide you a 4-300 and sixty 5 days diploma wager. There are components which would be concerning the assumption of time yet no longer reason a distinction directly. case in point, chemical ingredients that sell happiness could lead on directly to an enhance of pastime, which then in turn will bring about the thought factor has long previous quicker. a individual lacking in such upbeat, motivating chemical ingredients, might procrastinate and be reluctant to take part in many activities. basically because of innovations this individual makes, the time will then look to pass slower. yet this would not recommend that the chemical ingredients are concerning the assumption of passage of time. it quite is in simple terms an informed wager, however.