When you\'re having fun, time flies, and when you\'re waiting in a queue it drags on indefinitely. Sound and flash that last for the same time are perceive as signals of different durations. Time can set clever traps for us; and a philosopher from the Jagiellonian University will look at them.
Time is an increasingly important aspect of our daily lives, but it also has a psychological dimension that - in a sense - is independent of the physical time, which can be objectively measured. "The topic of my project is the perception of events in time. I distinguish between the perception of time, which you do not need to be aware of, and what appears in our consciousness as a physical time" - told PAP Dr. Michał Klincewicz from the Institute of Philosophy of the Jagiellonian University.
As part of a National Science Centre grant he will examine a number of aspects of subjectively perceived time, for example to what extent the perception of time depends on the different senses or emotions.
"Our sensory organs significantly vary in the way that they process the time information. This means that sound and flash with the same length is perceived completely differently. The first seems a bit longer to us. The first research on this difference was conducted about 40 years ago by Sanford Goldstone and William T. Lhamon. Psychological models explain it with the so-called internal timer we all have, that can act differently with regard to hearing and vision" - explained the philosopher.
We all know from experience that the individual emotions affect the perception of time. "Time can subjectively speed up or stop, depending on how we feel. Traumatic experience or euphoria can have a direct impact on how we perceive the time when something happened and how long it lasted. If someone is involved in a car accident, his time can almost come to a halt. If you stand in line for bread, the time stretches, because we are bored. On the other hand, when we are doing something very pleasant - we\'re at a concert or in a club and we are dancing - our subjective time shortens" - described the philosopher.
He noted that this is even reflected in the way in which we talk about time and metaphors we use to describe time. "When it\'s fun, time flies, and when it is boring time drags on" - he added.
Another aspect of his research concerns the relationship between a particular activity - such as jumping over an obstacle, or scoring a goal - and the perception of time. A player who wants to kick a ball into the goal must perfectly synchronize several steps. "If, for example, he jumps too early or too late, he will miss. How does a footballer obtain information about when to jump? Of course, his sense of sight processes information about the ball flight path and speed and other players around him. But unfortunately this information is not sufficient. Player must still process it quickly enough to be able to act in fractions of a second. Explaining this particular interaction is one of the main goals of my project" - described Dr. Klincewicz.
PAP - Science and Scholarship in Poland
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