The Psychology of Time By Tiffany-Rose Sikorski Article Tools Cite article Email article Share article Also in this

issue... Features Articles Playing Detective: Birth of New Star Provides Clues about Origin of the Solar System Feeling Lonely? Contact with other intelligent life may be closer than you think Making Sense of Abrupt Climate Change, or What Would Yoda Do? The Psychology of Time Why Gymnastics Judges Will Never Get a Perfect 10 Old Fashioned Coal: The Fuel of the Future Other articles by this author Smallpox Experiments Approved for First Time 11 November 2004 A Closer Look at Science Education: University and High School Partnerships Media Review - Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed How It Works: Surround Sound Systems are Bringing the Theater Home The Psychology of Time Most Popular Viewing the most popular Features from the past 30 days Regaining control: treatment options for spinal cord injury bladder dysfunction The Box Jellyfish: Australias Other Marine Killer Childhood Tuberculosis in Nepal When Bacteria Go Bad - the Case of Necrotizing Fasciitis The Fight for Recognition: Chagas Disease Meets Controversy Anyone who has sat through a boring meeting knows that five minutes can seem like an hour. Yet, time can seem to fly by when you are working hard on a project for a deadline. These two experiences are both related to psychological time measurements, which researchers have studied since the beginning of experimental psychology. Over time, scientists have shown that internal time-keeping is far from absolute. Timing, the Brain, and Fighter Pilots Since the early 1800s, psychologists have been testing how humans interpret time. Experiments dealing with duration, or length, attempt to explain the old adage, Time flies when youre having fun. In these duration experiments, scientists ask participants to estimate the amount of time they spend completing an activity. The scientists change different aspects of the activity, such as difficulty and length, and look for correspondence between variable aspects and the time estimates of the participants.

Many modern experiments rely on the theory that the cerebral cortex is the part of the brain responsible for keeping track of time. In these experiments, the difficulty level of the activities is changed to require greater use of the cerebral cortex. Hypothetically, as the difficulty increases, less brain power can be used to keep track of time, and time estimates should be small. In fact, research has shown that people with damaged cerebral cortexes have difficulty keeping track of time. There is some evidence that patients with lesions of the cerebral cortex can have deficits in timing, which often express themselves as language deficits, says David Eagleman, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin. In children, cortical timing problems can actually lead to learning disabilities. On the other hand, some people are better able to keep track of time, which may correspond to enhanced use of the cerebral cortex. Some related studies on the ability to keep track of many moving objects at the same time show that, for example, NBA basketball players and Israeli jet fighter pilots are much better than normal people, said Eagelman. Whether the enhanced time-keeping ability is genetic or learned is unknown. Prospective vs. Retrospective Dont think about giraffes. If you are now thinking about giraffes, then you are illustrating one of the difficulties of the cerebral cortex-based experiments. If participants are told ahead of time that they are going to make time estimates, then these participants may think about time, and thus use more of the cerebral cortex for time-keeping than they otherwise would. To deal with this problem, psychologists have differentiated between two kinds of time estimates, prospective and retrospective. In prospective time estimates, participants know ahead of time that they are going to be asked to estimate time. In retrospective time estimates, participants do not know that they will be asked to estimate time at the end of the activity. The Results In 1990, William Friedman published a review of 70 time experiments, including a list of phenomena that occur during duration time estimates. The first of the Friedman phenomena is that people underestimate time while completing attention-demanding

tasks. Most experimental research shows that this phenomenon occurs because peoples attention is diverted from time-keeping when they are engaged in challenging activities. While time may fly when you are having fun, Friedman also points out that time slows down during periods of high expectation, nervousness, fear, or anticipation. Friedman also states that time goes by quicker as you age. Researchers have shown that the relationship between age and time perception is logarithmic, meaning that people measure time relative to their age. Even memory can affect how you perceive time. Friedman states that a time period seems longer if remembered in detail, and shorter if remembered only in outline. Similarly, many events during a time period lead to overestimates of duration. Friedman explains these phenomena with peoples tendency to assume that it takes longer for many events to occur than for a few to occur. Friedman acknowledged that some of these phenomena have more experimental support than others. In a recent study, University of Alberta scientists Anthony Chaston and Alan Kingstone showed that time flies for people whose attention is actively engaged, supporting the first Friedman phenomena. In the Chaston-Kingstone experiment, groups of participants searched through various images looking for certain objects, referred to as a Wheres Waldo type activity. These searches are called conjunction searches because they utilize the cerebral cortex. The two researchers found that even in prospective time measurements, people increasingly underestimate time as the difficulty of the activity increases. In other words, time flies when youre busy. Chaston and Kingstones findings are important because of societys focus on time. As Richard A. Block and Dan Zakay explain, A person must encode temporal properties of important eventsFor example, driving a car requires a person to estimate durations in order to engage in appropriate actions at a correct time. Also importantly, Chaston and Kingstones results show that even when someone knows ahead of time they are going to estimate duration, time still flies while completing more difficult tasks. In a recent press release, Chaston stated, The results were super clean. We have created a new and powerful paradigm to get at the link between time and attention.

We all want to keep our minds sharp and fresh. By working to keep your mind sharp, you can improve your attitude. Nothing angers a person more than not being able to remember important things or events. By having a sharp mind you can figure situations out more effectively and make wiser decisions. There are numerous ways to keep your mind sharp while keeping a good, well-rounded attitude.one of these include understanding your goal and setting your mind towards achieving that goal.must discipline yourself in a positive attitude and surround yourself with people that inspire you.to keep motivated one should set time to reach the goal Edit Steps 1 Heed this next statement: No matter how sharp a mind you may have, no one can remember everything. Therefore, don't beat yourself up trying. Learning to write things down helps. Ads by Google 3-Minute Chakra Test Take the Free Chakra Test to Find Out Which of Your Chakras Are Weak www.ChakraHealing.com 2 Find and use a special talent. Everyone has some type of special talent. Be open to trying different things. You could find a hidden talent that you are not aware of. Do you learn from sound and voice pitch or from pictures? 3 Maintain a regular exercise program. It will help to relieve tension. Relieving tension alone can improve your thought patterns. The less tension that you have the sharper your mind will become. You will begin to develop a better attitude as time goes on. You should find a program that works for you. 4 Write through self-expression. Writing poetry can be relaxing plus it is a great way to express yourself. Not everyone writes poetry so find your own mode of self expression. Try sewing, playing a musical instrument, or gardening. Get a Diary and express your thoughts. 5 Don't let learning stop just because you're out of school. You are never too old to learn. Go to your local library to gain more knowledge. It is a great place to relax, gather thoughts, and focus on studying. If you have any spare time, carry a book over to the park or stop in at a family restaurant. It all aids in building a sharper better mind, and improves your attitude. 6

Treat yourself as well as you treat others. It will improve the way you think. You will be a happier individual with a sharper mind and better attitude. Try buying yourself a small gift while out shopping for others. It is always good to give, and being generous is nice, but charity should begin at home. Remember, too, that generosity involves more than just material things and satisfaction is not achieved by consumption. 7 Figure out for yourself the true meaning of what is important in life. In doing so you will build a sharper mind and a better attitude. For where others may have failed and so never know the true meaning, you may succeed. Search deep inside for your inner self. 8 Try to find some common sense in life. You are truly blessed if you have common sense. There is nothing like good old common sense, for without it how can you possibly achieve having a sharp mind? 9 Use your mind more instead of using a calculator or adding machine. This is to say, especially, on simple things that you can easily total up in your head or on a piece of paper. Many people haven't done long division since grade school; give it a try sometime. 10 Stay focused on making your own decisions. Don't let other people try to make decisions for you. Be firm about speaking for yourself. And don't be afraid of expressing your opinion. Everyone has an opinion and the right to have one. Who knows, your opinion may catch on. 11 Do things that you enjoy. Jog or run or ski or play ball, fish, write, garden, or whatever makes you happy. It will help you to keep your mind fresh and clear and keep your attitude at it's best. 12 Learn some basic memory techniques. To start off with, you could find some books written by Tony Buzan (Mind Maps) or Dominic O'Brien: both of them are top people in the memory world. 13 Learn from everything you do. When mowing figure out the most efficient route, When reading try to read faster, every detail make look a little better, try to write neat, try to never use spell check, and so on. Because if you are constantly learning you will succeed in life, and you will surpass your fellow workers. 14 Learn to improve your mental ability in domains such as logic, problems solving, mental orientation and corrective thought process. It allows one to improve upon rationality and with rationality comes right attitude towards situation....