What Is Time Perception?

Time perception refers to the perception of continuity and order of objective phenomena. The information of time perception comes from both the outside and the inside. External information includes timing tools, as well as periodic changes in the cosmic environment, such as the rise and fall of the sun and so on. Internal scales are rhythmic physiological processes and psychological activities inside the body. A certain state of a nerve cell can also become a time signal. The time measured with the timer does not exactly match the estimated time.

Chinese name: Time perception

Foreign name: time perception
Applied discipline: psychology

Introduction to Time Perception

Time perception psychology concept

Time perception refers to the perception of continuity and order of objective phenomena. It is related to both the activity content, emotions, motivations, attitudes, and the physical nature and context of the stimulus. In addition, people tend to underestimate the longer time intervals, while the shorter time intervals are overestimated. The simpler the stimulus code, the shorter the duration of perception. The senses are different in judging the correctness of the time interval. Auditory and tactile estimates of time intervals are the most accurate. Due to age, life experience and vocational training, there are obvious differences in time perception between people.

Time perception branch concept

Time perception is a branch concept in film psychology. Perception of continuity and order of objective phenomena. People always perceive time through some kind of measuring medium. There are two kinds of media for measuring time: external scales and internal scales. They can provide people with information about time. External scales include timing tools, such as clocks, calendars, etc .; they also include periodic changes in the cosmic environment, such as the rise and fall of the sun, the profit and loss of the moon, the alternation of day and night, and the repetition of seasons. Internal scales are some of the rhythmic physiological processes and psychological activities inside the body, such as heartbeat, breathing, digestion, and the decline of memory appearances. Certain states of nerve cells can also become time signals. A person's rhythmic activities and physiological processes basically take 24 hours as a cycle. Therefore, a person's body can be regarded as a rhythm of life.

Classification of time perception:

Timing perception

2. Time perception

3. Time perception

The relationship between time perception and other mental activities

Psychologists have found that the time measured with a timer does not exactly match the estimated time. People's time perception is related to activity content, emotion, motivation and attitude. The rich and interesting situation makes people feel that time is passing quickly, while the content is boring and boring, which makes people feel that time is passing slowly; positive emotions make people feel that time is short, and negative emotions make people feel that time is long; The attitude of anticipation makes people feel that time is passing slowly. In general, the more you pay attention to the duration, the longer you feel; the estimate of anticipation is longer than the retrospective estimate. Some experiments have also shown that time perception is significantly dependent on the physical properties and context of the stimulus. For example, a stronger stimulus is perceived as longer than a less powerful stimulus, and a segmented duration is perceived as longer than a blank duration. For example, for a discontinuous sound, the more discontinuities are heard in a given time, the more people feel that the time is longer. For longer time intervals, it is often underestimated; for shorter time intervals, it is overestimated. Relevant materials also show that time perception is related to the coding of the stimulus. The simpler the stimulus coding, the shorter the duration of perception. At equal time intervals (40 or 80 milliseconds), the blank interval appears shorter than the interval between filled syllables.

As of the 1980s, there is no evidence that the brain has a specialized center for computing time. The damage of time perception can be seen in the case of damage to different parts of the cortex. The senses are different in judging the correctness of the time interval. Auditory and tactile estimates of time intervals are the most accurate. The maximum interval of auditory recognition is 0.01 seconds, the maximum limit of tactile recognition is 0.025 seconds, and the maximum limit of visual recognition is 0.1 to 0.05 seconds. ^[1]

Research Methods of Time Perception

Time perception replication method:

Present a standard stimulus first and ask the participants to copy it for as long as the standard stimulus. Participants can't tell how long the specific time is, but they can more accurately copy the length of time based on their own judgment. Unaffected by past experience, it can accurately represent a person's ability to distinguish the length of time. (Better) The replicated action and time stimulus are often not the same sensory tract (except for replicated kinesthetic stimuli). Error% = Sum of absolute values of the error / (actual time * number of experiments)

Time Perception Constant Stimulation:

Find the difference in time. The two stimuli that distinguish the length are the same. Cumbersome and long measurement time.

Time perception assessment method:

That is, a certain length of stimulus is presented first, and the participants are required to evaluate how long it lasts. The closer the evaluation time is to the actual stimulus duration, the more accurate the time perception. The judgment results of the subjects include the factors of the subjects' experience with specific time, and the measured results cannot accurately represent a person's perception of the length of time. Error% = absolute value of the error / actual time.

Some properties of time perception

Memory classification analysis mode of human brain inherent in time perception

Time perception is an internal memory classification analysis model of the human brain. It is not used to specify the perceived objective world, nor can it be used to describe the objective world itself. Here we must distinguish three concepts: the world picture in our brain's memory, the objective world we perceive, and the objective world itself.

A picture of the world in our brain's memory. First of all, because in the memory of the brain there are retained representations of the world's past, perceived representations of the world's present representation, and reasoned predictions about the future representation of the world. All three exist in the brain at the same time, and in a sequential order Sorted and sorted to form a continuous existence unity. The brain can call and analyze the three arbitrarily, so that it can estimate and compare the length of time.

The objective world we perceive is instantaneous, the film is there, its past has disappeared, and its future has not yet arisen. We do not have any empirical evidence to affirm that the past, present, and future of the objective world we perceive are a continuum, like a long scroll, all present. Time perception, as we all know, refers to a measurement of the continuum of past, present, and future. The objective world as we perceived it no longer exists, and it does not exist in the future, only the present and the film. Therefore, the objective world we perceive does not have the nature of time perception, which is inconsistent with our popular definition of time perception.

Regarding the objective world itself, with our current experimental methods and experimental data, it is not yet possible to explain it temporally. Whether it is a synchronic unity of the past, present, and future, or is it a constantly changing film. Diachronic body before and after the existence of form. Some scientists tend to describe the world like this: there was no time before the Big Bang, and the universe started with the Big Bang and experienced a long time lapse; we can ride the time machine back to the past. It seems that the world is a synchronic body. It has a past and a future, and we can grasp it. But we have never had any empirical data to show that there is a certain experience of the universe in a certain corner of the universe, and we can go back to the past without destroying the changes of the universe.

A more independent structure or pattern in the temporal perception brain

Time perception is a relatively independent structure or pattern in the brain. It is a group of differentiated neurons in the brain and has a specific single function. The research of modern time cognitive neuroscience shows that no matter which set of images and events we perceive, the fixed neural tissue in the brain is always activated to participate in it. Specific representations experience changes and these neural tissues are stable. Specifically, the basal ganglia, cerebellum, and prefrontal lobe play a major role in temporal information processing. The functional activities of these neural tissues form the main structure and pattern of human time perception.

Specific representational experience does not imply time, such as a tree or a flower. Only a sequence of representational experience can have a temporal nature, but it is not time perception itself. When empirical images enter the brain, they are cluttered. The pattern of brain time perception is sorted according to the sequence of different representations of the same thing before and after changes, forming the rationalized basic objects and materials of brain time perception. Perceptual mode can analyze the relative measurement and comparison of time.

We say that it takes t seconds for P to move from A to B. We mean that the empirical representation sequence of P moving from A to B shows the quality of t seconds under the measurement of the functional structure of the time perception mode. The sequence of P-movement itself cannot be self-explanatory in terms of time, and must be explained with the help of functional models of time perception.

The pattern of temporal perception pattern and specific empirical appearance are interdependent. Without specific empirical representations, the physiological infrastructure of time perception cannot perform normal perceptual analysis functions; on the contrary, if there is no temporal perception function mode, the empirical representations in the brain will be confused.

Time perception Time perception is a subjective measure of change

Time perception is a subjective measure of change. Absolute stillness, including the perceived subject, the perceived object, and the environment in which they are located, is in a static state, so there is no time and it is eternal. What eternity is, is absolute stillness, no change, no time.

Time perception is an analytical measurement of the sequence of memory associations formed by the experience of appearance. To form the sequence and union of the experience and appearance of a thing, the thing must be in continuous change. The constantly changing state of things stimulates the brain, thus forming a continuous sequence of appearances about the thing. There are three situations: 1) Perceive the change of the object itself. Perceive the change of the object itself to form a continuous image sequence. According to this image sequence, the temporal perception pattern of the brain can be measured and compared temporally. 2) The perception object remains unchanged, and the environment in which the perception object is located changes. Similarly, according to the appearance sequence formed by the changes in the environment of the perceived object, we can also relatively estimate the length of time that the perceived object is at rest. 3) Perceived objects remain unchanged, and the environment in which they perceive remain unchanged. Perceiving subjects can still estimate the time elapsed based on their own physiological cycle and their own internal time experience.

Subjective measurement and judgment of time perception on the appearance of the same thing before and after change

Time perception is a subjective measurement and judgment of the appearance of the same thing before and after the change. For different things A and B before and after changes in their respective environments, only A and B before their changes are directly related. So how do we determine that A is the changed A? This introduces a question about the continuity of change.

First, our perception of visual objects is continuous. This can be explained by flash experiments. Our visual system has a sensory delay, that is, even if the light is removed after the light is sensed, this perception will continue for a short period of time, which is generally determined to be 150-250ms after research. Now suppose we perceive a flash, and soon (less than 100ms) plus a second flash. Because of the visual response and lasting more than 100ms, the response to the first flash has not yet disappeared. The response of the second flash, and the reaction to the third flash is added before the response to the second flash has disappeared. This flash will cause a continuous response in the visual system. It's like continuous light. The sequence of appearances perceived by our visual system is like a flash of light, that is, successive light stimuli are superimposed together to form a continuous and stable light stimulation flow and continuous sequence for the visual system, so that the world appearance we perceive appears A continuous and stable picture. The successive light stimuli of the same object are superimposed together to form a continuous and stable perception experience of this thing.

Vision systems tend to keep light patterns for about 150-250ms. If a thing changes, it continuously gives the optic nerve different and latest light stimulation within this time threshold, and we will perceive its continuous and stable picture of change; if a thing is still, as long as it is at this time Within the threshold, the visual nerve is continuously given the same latest light stimulation, and we will perceive it to be relatively stationary. If a thing stops emitting light stimulation after the last light stimulation, after this time threshold, After this threshold is followed by optical stimulation to the visual nerve, we will perceive that it has disappeared for a period of time because no visual information about it is received.

For the appearance of rest, brain memory tends to omit that its middle part is not important enough. For example, when we recall a stone on the ground, the brain does not appear multiple sequences of the same memory imagery, but only remembers a few imagery images at important moments relative to its environment. Then when making a temporal judgment, it often underestimates the value of its duration. In the same way, for a complicated thing that changes more often, we tend to remember more of its appearance information. At the same time, when we judge it temporally, we tend to overestimate its duration.

The brain mechanism of time perception

In view of the characteristics of brain omission and forgetting, some people have suggested that there is a positive correlation between time perception and the number of events recalled: the reduction in duration is consistent with the reduction in remembering events. For example, at the end of our 11th holiday, one month after the end of our 11th holiday, we review the 11th holiday at these two time points. The estimated time we get is different, and the estimated time obtained by the latter is much less. The value obtained from the former.

So what is the nature of the number of identifiable events, is it just the number of events? Here we imagine an experiment. The same set of slides is played at a fixed frequency for the first time and at a higher frequency for the second time. In the experimental results, it is easy for an average adult to determine that the previous playback took longer, because they can take into account the duration of each slide and the number of slides. Most children ignore the speed of the slideshow. Therefore, in addition to the number of recall events, the time estimate of the recall is also related to the duration of the continuous stimulation of each image, at least there are two variables.

But there is also a problem here, that is, the main principle of time perception should be the measurement of the continuity of the event. So what is its internal organic mechanism? We can imagine a fatigue model here.

Our brain will divide the whole event according to the change in the nature of the event, the so-called turning point, and divide it into a combination of smaller events, so that the event will not be too difficult to measure and analyze because it is too large. .

An event is a set of continuous and stable appearance sequences. One reason why our brain considers it to be continuous, convincing, and more definitive experimental explanation is that within the time delay of visual delay, the appearance of the event is The form of continuous light action continuously stimulates the visual nerve, so that the visual nerve produces a continuous excitement or fatigue. The brain memorizes this, while memorizing the appearance of events, it also memorizes the degree of excitement or fatigue, that is, our so-called duration is converted into a measure of neurophysiological excitement or fatigue. Of course, this is only a brief description of a hypothetical model, but it is very effective in explaining some phenomena of time perception, and we do not have a similar and more effective model description at present, so it has some value and can be further Expand the connotation and verify the inference.

Time perception application

Time perception is gradually developed in the practice of human society. "Sense of time" is a very important part of human adaptation activities. Due to age, life experience and vocational training, there are obvious differences in time perception between people. The training of certain professional activities will make people have a precise sense of time. For example, experienced athletes can accurately grasp the time rhythm of movements, and experienced teachers can correctly estimate the time of a lesson. ^[2]