Children and adults experience time differently

Researchers at Eötvös Loránd University have investigated whether the perception of time changes with age, and if so, how, and why we perceive the passage of time differently. Their study was published in Scientific Reports.Time can do tricks. Many of us experienced the illusion that those long summers during childhood felt so much longer than the same 3 months feel like now as an adult. While we can argue why one summer may appear longer than the other and how the percept of time can compress and dilate durations depending on various factors, we can easily set up an experiment to gain more insights.The researchers just did that. They asked how eventfulness affects our duration estimates when probing at different milestones during our cognitive development. They set aside three age groups, 4-5, 9-10, and 18 years and older, and made them watch two videos, 1 minute each. The two videos were extracted from a popular animated series, balanced in visual and acoustic features, except for one feature: eventfulness. One video consisted of a rapid succession of events (a policeman rescuing animals and arresting a thief), and the other was a monotonous and repetitive sequence (six shady prisoners escaping on a rowing boat). The researchers played the two clips in a balanced order of 50%, watching the eventful first. After watching both videos, they asked only two questions: “Which one was longer?” and “Can you show the durations with your arms?” Easy to understand questions even for a 4-year-old.

Researchers at Eötvös Loránd University have investigated whether the perception of time changes with age, and if so, how, and why we perceive the passage of time differently. Their study was published in Scientific Reports.

Time can do tricks. Many of us experienced the illusion that those long summers during childhood felt so much longer than the same 3 months feel like now as an adult. While we can argue why one summer may appear longer than the other and how the percept of time can compress and dilate durations depending on various factors, we can easily set up an experiment to gain more insights.

1 Comment

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One response to “Children and adults experience time differently

  1. It sucks that when time means the most to someone, who has less of it left, it goes by faster and faster. To the child who has potentially all the time in the world, it is just tortuous to endure each second.

    Liked by 1 person

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