Perception of Time Can Be Skewed by What We See, New Research Reveals
In findings published in Nature Human Behaviour , research psychologists from George Mason University discovered that viewing more prominent and memorable scenes can create the impression of time moving more slowly. Conversely, cluttered imagery compresses time perception, making it seem to speed up.
This revelation challenges conventional understandings of how time is encoded by the brain during sensory processing and opens new avenues for exploring the intricate relationship between visual perception and time.
“These findings suggest that visual circuits mediate or construct perceived time,” the study’s authors wrote. “[This] provides evidence for a link between image features, time perception, and memory that can be further explored with models of visual processing.”
Time perception, or chronoception, has long been a subject of fascination within psychology, cognitive linguistics, and neuroscience. It refers to how humans perceive the passage of time, a process integral to sensory experiences.
