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?
2006-10-12 07:18:31 · 8 answers · asked by The Answer 2 in Social Science ➔ Psychology
I know that time seems much longer to a small child than to an adult. Personally my theory is that a particular unit of time is so much bigger in proportion to the amount of time a child has lived than for an adult that this impacts the perception of how long it is.
For example - a typical summer of 3 month's is about 5% of a 5 year old's life so far; but only about .8% of a 30 year old.
As for why "time flies when we're having fun" I think it is because we are not focused on the time but the activity. When we're NOT enjoying ourselves part of our mind is going "when can I get out of this?" - thus focusing on the time.
2006-10-12 07:29:16 · answer #1 · answered by yonica 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, it seems you're onto the answer of your first question just in the way you asked the second one. If a day goes faster when we're active and especially when we're happy about it, then the perception of a year should be the same way.
As far as chemicals go, I can only give you a 4-yr degree guess.
There are factors that may be related to the perception of time but not cause a difference directly. For instance, chemicals that promote happiness might lead to an increase of activity, which then in turn will lead to the perception that time has gone faster. A person lacking in such upbeat, motivating chemicals, may procrastinate and be reluctant to participate in many events. Only because of the choices this person makes, the time will then seem to go slower. But this would not suggest that the chemicals are related to the perception of passage of time.
That's just an educated guess, though.
2006-10-12 07:30:18 · answer #2 · answered by starryeyed 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Context is everything to human reasoning, perception, and emotional response.
Consider all of the optical illusions. Grey squares that appear lighter and darker based on the background. Lines that appear to move or curve because they form patterns. These perceptions are because the contexts are different. The same applies to higher order perceptions and reasoning.
Haven't you every hated (or loved) a movie, and then when you watch the movie later wondered why you felt the way you did? Then you realize that you fought with a friend that day? Or had had a really good day? Or had been told the movie was great? Or horrible? This context influenced your feelings about the movie consciously and unconsciously.
The same is true for your perception of time. Your perception is being colored by your mood, by the situation, by 1000s of other small conscious and unconscious influences.
2006-10-12 07:39:31 · answer #3 · answered by Wundt 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Albert Einstien asked the same questions, His conclusion was yes, people do experience the concept of time diffirently.
Based on his general and special theory of relativity he postulates that perception of the universe is unique to each observer do to every individual occupies a place in time/space that is unique to the observer, and depending on where the observer is in relation to the gravitational field effcts of celestial bodies. Since gravity is a warping of time/space, And time is effected by the effects of gravity, and no 2 people can occupy the same space, each observers reference is unique.
2006-10-12 07:34:56 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
How would you evaluate both theories:
a)Sigmund Freud’s, in which he postulated that the mind operates in two levels, the conscious and the unconscious; about his discoveries that impulses and desires (many sexually originated) existed mainly in the unconscious level.
b)Tarcísio Brito’s, in which he postulates that the mind operates between consciousness and emotion. When we elevate the consciousness, we retrain the emotion, and when we elevate the emotion, we retrain the consciousness; about his imaginary graphic, which show that the balance corresponds to ≥ 50 % of consciousness and ≤ 50% of emotion. The unbalance happens the opposite.
2006-10-12 07:23:34 · answer #5 · answered by britotarcisio 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
hi.................... I heard a narrative as quickly as a pair of team of miners who have been trapped in a mine . in basic terms one guy had a watch and became telling his fellow miners the time yet became shaving off the minutes so as that the adult men could be much less worrying approximately how long that they have been trapped. whilst rescuers stumbled on the adult men, all of them have been alive, aside from the guy with the watch. ought to they even have been saved alive via using their theory of time? The human concepts is a wonderous element.
2016-10-16 03:03:02 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you need to do something you have less time and if you don't you have more.
Children don't have the concept of time so everything seems like it's taking forever to them.
2006-10-12 07:41:25 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
My husbands concept of time is very different from mine.....especially when he's waiting for me to get dressed so we can go out.
2006-10-12 07:37:37 · answer #8 · answered by daljack -a girl 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋