The Dynamics of Time Perception

The Dynamics of Time Perception

How much time does one spend waiting in a lifetime? This is a fascinating question to which no one seems to have a definite answer. We have perhaps spent more hours than we could have ever imagined, waiting for both events that have happened, as well as those that never happened. Though, what is curious about this question is that it is rather disparate from the question of how much time does one 'feel' like they have spent waiting in a lifetime. One way to understand this is by using the subjective versus objective reality debate—does the reality that one perceived, equate to what actually happened? Indeed, the representation of time is subjected to one's own reality. Context substantially influences one’s own time perception. The passage of time is thus dependent on intrinsic contexts, such as the concurrent emotional state [1], or extrinsic contexts such as the rhythm of other actions (i.e., the rate of speech), and the feedback of our actions (i.e., the reaction of others). So, despite an intact and fully functional biological clock, homogenous temporal perceptions do not seem to exist [1]. This multiplicity of factors can thus explain why no single experience of time is the same—days may shrink into minutes, minutes may stretch into eternity. In this literature review, we will take a deep dive into the progress of research and explore the dynamics of time perception.

"on doit mettre de côté le temps unique, seuls comptent les temps multiples, ceux de l'expérience' (we must put aside the idea of a single time, all that counts are the multiple times that make up experience) ([2] as cited in [1])"

In 2009, Droit-Volet and Gil [1] wrote an intriguing paper on the time-emotion paradox. The paper highlighted that individuals' emotional context is greatly capable of distorting time perception, creating discrepancies between one's own experience of time and the objective measurement. A plausible mechanism explaining this phenomenon can be understood using the internal ticking clock metaphor [1], [3], [4]. Droit-Volet and Meck [3] conceptualised that our resources (i.e., cognitive capacity) get redirected away from our internal clock as our attention is captured by a pleasant event. As a result of the resources being diverted away, the 'tick' of the clock may be missed. This causes underestimation of time perception, which means that the subjective time perception becomes shorter than its objective reality. Contrarily, the overestimation of time can be induced by increased arousal, such as a stressful event. What these events do is increase the ticks on our internal clock. As the same amount of time passes by, but with a larger number of ticks in-between, the subjective experience of time is lengthened— we start to feel like the duration is getting longer than it actually is [1], [3]. The essence of this notion is that our internal clock is incredibly vulnerable to manipulations and distortions, giving rise to subjective time experience.

The nature of time perception— its vulnerability to distortions and manipulations— is undoubtedly captivating. The body of literature surrounding time perception is continuously growing, and numerous studies have closely investigated the fragility of time perception and its relationship with multitudes of events, particularly waiting. Rankin et al. [5] conducted interesting studies that looked closely at the association between subjective time perception during stressful waiting periods. They examined undergraduate and graduate students as they waited for their exam results. The results from the studies suggest that there is a robust association between distress and time perception. At the between-individuals level, those who reported greater levels of worry and anxiety also reported perceiving the time waited to have been moving slower. The results also suggest that there is an intra-individual variability. That is, the time passage is slowest for a person experiencing the most anxiety and distress.

These findings are very closely related to prior research conducted by different laboratories on the relationships between emotions and temporal perception using facial expression [6-8], which may offer us another plausible mechanism explaining the results from Rankin et al. [5]. The original study by Droit-Volet et al. [6] revealed an association between the overestimation of time and emotional arousal. Later, these findings were well replicated by Tipples [7], [8] and Effron et al. [9]. Tipples [7] suggests that the increased level of overestimation of time perception can, indeed, be linked to negative emotionality such as angry and fearful facial expressions. These findings offer us a new explanation that time perception can not only be explained by attention-based processes (such as the ticking clock metaphor mentioned previously), but can also be understood in terms of emotional arousal. That is, the modulation of emotions can influence a person's sense of time, and the fact that multiple processes can influence one's time perception well-reconciles its fragility.

Rankin et al. [5] wasn't the only group who found the relationship between stressful events and waiting time perception. Recently, another study was conducted by Droit-Volet et al. to investigate time perception and Covid-19 stress [10]. The study revealed that the significant increase in boredom and sadness during lockdown had constituted changes in time perception. They stated that boredom and sadness were predictors of the experienced “slowing down” of time during the lockdown [10]. The negative relationship between time perception, sadness, and boredom came as no surprise. As sadness and boredom exacerbate, the perceived passage of time becomes slower. Indeed, the results here are congruent with the previous study that pointed out the negative emotional arousal and the slowing down of time [6], [7], [8], [9].

During the pandemic when negative emotional arousal such as sadness, fear, anger, and boredom are endured for an extensive period of time, a slowing down of time can take a toll on mental health and wellbeing [11]. If this is the case, is it possible for us to take advantage of what we know about time perception? If our temporal perception is truly fragile, the modulation should work both ways. Because our sense of time is subjected to factors such as emotions [6], [8], [12] and attention [13], [14] that can slow down time perception, the reverse should also be true. A study by Sweeny and colleagues [15] may have offered us an example of how we may achieve this; the study probes into the potential coping resources such as mindfulness and flow during COVID-19. Flow can be simply understood as the state of being 'in the zone’ [16]. It is when one is completely absorbed into what they are doing, thereby influencing their sense of time [17]. Sure enough, flow was found to help mitigate the deleterious effects of lengthy quarantines [15]. The paper suggests that pleasant activities can fully attract a person’s attention. As they fully immerse themselves in those activities, days will feel shorter. This finding thus fits very well with the attention-based ticking clock metaphor [3], [4]; activities such as writing, gaming, and exercising that one may enjoy doing during stressful events such as lockdowns can, indeed, divert one's attention away from the actual amount of time [18]. Ultimately, engaging in flow will not only help speed up subjective time experiences, but also draw benefits to one's mental health and wellbeing.

Time and perceived time are not always necessarily the same. As the existing body of literature grows, we are starting to gain much more insight into how it works and its implications. It may be safe to say that the existing models and metaphors have yet to cover a myriad of phenomena. Besides the cognitive perspective, there is so much to learn about how neurobiological processes are tied into one's sense of time. Our temporal perception is closely associated with our wellbeing in different ways. It will be interesting to see additional studies in the future as this knowledge may help improve the well-being of individuals during stressful times.

References

[1] S. Droit-Volet and S. Gil, “The time–emotion paradox,” vol. 364, no. 1525, pp. 1943–1953, Jul. 2009, doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0013.

[2] H. Bergson, Durée et simultanéité. France, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 1968.

[3] S. Droit-Volet and W. H. Meck, “How emotions colour our perception of time,” vol. 11, no. 12, pp. 504–513, 2007, doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2007.09.008.

[4] S. Droit-Volet, S. Monceau, M. Berthon, P. Trahanias, and M. Maniadakis, “The explicit judgment of long durations of several minutes in everyday life: Conscious retrospective memory judgment and the role of affects?,” vol. 13, no. 4, p. e0195397, Apr. 2018, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0195397.

[5] K. Rankin, K. Sweeny, and S. Xu, “Associations between subjective time perception and well-being during stressful waiting periods,” vol. 35, no. 4, pp. 549–559, Oct. 2019, doi: 10.1002/smi.2888.

[6] S. Droit-Volet, S. Brunot, and P. M. Niedenthal, “Perception of the duration of emotional events,” vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 849–858, 2004, doi: 10.1080/02699930341000194.

[7] J. Tipples, “Negative emotionality influences the effects of emotion on time perception,” vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 127–131, Feb. 2008, doi: 10.1037/1528-3542.8.1.127.

[8] J. Tipples, “Increased Frustration Predicts the Experience of Time Slowing-Down: Evidence from an Experience Sampling Study,” vol. 6, Jun. 2018, doi: 10.1163/22134468-20181134.

[9] D. A. Effron, P. M. Niedenthal, S. Gil, and S. Droit-Volet, “Embodied temporal perception of emotion,” vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 1–9, Feb. 2006, doi: 10.1037/1528-3542.6.1.1.

[10] S. Droit-Volet et al., “Time and Covid-19 stress in the lockdown situation: Time free, «Dying» of boredom and sadness,” vol. 15, no. 8, p. e0236465, Aug. 2020, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0236465.

[11] E. A. Holman and E. L. Grisham, “When time falls apart: The public health implications of distorted time perception in the age of COVID-19,” vol. 12, no. S1, pp. S63–S65, 2020, doi: 10.1037/tra0000756.

[12] Y. Yamada and T. Kawabe, “Emotion colors time perception unconsciously,” vol. 20, no. 4, pp. 1835–1841, Dec. 2011, doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2011.06.016.

[13] R. A. Block and R. P. Gruber, “Time perception, attention, and memory: A selective review,” vol. 149, pp. 129–133, Jun. 2014, doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.11.003.

[14] D. Zakay and R. Block, “An Attentional-Gate model of Prospective Time Estimation,” pp. 167-178, Nov. 1994.

[15] K. Sweeny et al., “Flow in the time of COVID-19: Findings from China,” vol. 15, no. 11, p. e0242043, 2020, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0242043.

[16] J. Nakamura and M. Csikszentmihalyi, The concept of flow. New York, NY, US: Oxford University Press, 2002, pp. 89–105.

[17] K. Cherry, “How to Achieve Flow.” https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-flow-2794768 (accessed Dec. 23, 2021).

[18] F. Nuyens, D. Kuss, O. Lopez-Fernandez, and M. Griffiths, “The Potential Interaction Between Time Perception and Gaming: A Narrative Review,” vol. 18, Oct. 2020, doi: 10.1007/s11469-019-00121-1.