Tell me more ×
Cognitive Sciences Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for practitioners, researchers, and students in cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience, and psychiatry. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 15 down vote favorite
1

For many people time seems to run faster as they get older. That is, for an old person an hour, a day or a year seems to be shorter than for a young person.

Is there any hard data for such phenomenon? And if so, what is the cause?

To name a few possibilities it can be about the reaction time (so one have more or less 'turns' in a minute), the relative time comparing to one's age, ways in which memory changes with age or habits (younger may live more active life). Of course, there may be different causes for different time scales. However, I haven't found anything but anecdotal data and home-made theories.

share|improve this question
I wouldn't think there is any age related causality with time perception. I'm thinking more along the lines of how you can forget almost any detail while driving to work, but remember intricate details about going to a concert. When you don't receive any new 'impulses' you are likely to perceive that as time passing faster. 'older' people tend to have that more. Once you start working life becomes more routine, and you can notice a clear difference in perception of time. Unfortunately I can't substantiate any of this, it's just a hunch. ;p – Steven Jeuris♦ Jan 22 '12 at 22:12
There's definitely a finding that, when asked to produce time intervals, older individuals produce systematically longer intervals than younger individuals. I think there was a BBC documentary that "replicated" this live, but I can't remember its name nor the original reference... – Mike Jan 23 '12 at 1:13
@Mike: I think that that the reference you are looking for is the one I'm citing in my answer below. If it isn't, I would be very interested in knowing you reference if you find it! – Rasmus Bååth Feb 20 '12 at 8:36
2  
See also this question on the biology stack exchange. – Matt McHenry Mar 3 '12 at 3:12

2 Answers

up vote 8 down vote accepted

There is "hard evidence" regarding how timing and the subjective experience of intervals changes as a function of age. McAuley et al. (2006) ran a battery of different timing and time perception tasks on participants of ages ranging from 4 to 95 years. One finding that relates to your question was that children in the range of 4 to 7 years preferred and, when asked to tap, produced sequences where the inter response interval was much shorter (around 300 ms) than that for adults (around 500 ms). One interpretation of this finding is indeed that small children prefer living on a faster time scale than grownups.

Referenses

The time of our lives: Life span development of timing and event tracking. McAuley, J. Devin;Jones, Mari Riess;Holub, Shayla;Johnston, Heather M.;Miller, Nathaniel S. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, Vol 135(3), Aug 2006, 348-367. doi: 10.1037/0096-3445.135.3.348, free pdf

share|improve this answer
up vote 11 down vote

Wikipedia on time perception

The Wikipedia article on "time perception". In particular, the section on long-term time perception cites a couple of articles. * The articles makes the common point that a unit of time as a proportion of one's life decreases with age. A few empirical studies are also cited.

Ukraintseva (2001)

Ukraintseva (2001) wrote an article devoted to the topic and makes several interesting points about time perception over aging. E.g.,

  • Ukraintseva argues the rate of aging decreases with age and that this may have relevance to experience of time.
  • Ukraintseva also suggests that living may be slower in some sense with age citing examples of slower "metabolic rate, rate of cell proliferation, physical, mental alertness, and the rate of living in general".

Graf and Grondin

Graf and Grondin have an article that reviews the literature on the psychology of time perception and discusses age related differences. However, the article seems to focus more on aspects of performance rather than the subjective experience of time slowing.

  • They cite a few studies that suggest that in relation to judging time intervals, older adults may be less accurate.

Personal musings

My own random musings (treat them as you wish) suggest that topics such as flow, goals, rhythm of life, and boredom might also be relevant.

  • A feature of being immersed in a state of flow is a sense of time distortion.
  • As we get older, perhaps we start to set more long term goals, and this might shape the experience of time and change.
  • Increased levels of routinisation and automaticity might also decrease awareness of time passing.
  • Perhaps knowing how to avoid boredom would be relevant to time passing.

References

  • Graf and Grondin "Time perception and time-based prospective memory" in TIMING THE FUTURE - The Case for a Time-Based Prospective Memory (FREE PDF)
  • Ukraintseva (2001) Aging and the subjective sense of time. (FREE PDF)

The above are just a few quick points (it's not my area):

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.