Time, Subjective Flow of

The subjective flow of time changes continuously. This variation is part of our everyday experience. When we are waiting, bored, or feeling blue, the subjective passage of time slows down. Time drags. When, however, we are involved in a fascinating discussion or absorbed in a skillful performance, we can become unaware of time and later feel that time has passed very quickly. As these examples show, attention and mood states play a fundamental role in the subjective passage of time. As explained below, our experience of the flow of time is based on our cognitive and emotional states.

In a phenomenological analysis of time experience, Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-Ponty discern two complementary aspects of temporality: (1) the feeling of a present or “now-ness” and (2) the flow of time. William James pointed out the paradox of this dual experience of time. We perceive the unity of the present. A fundamental temporal window of consciousness spanning a few seconds defines our sense of now. We simultaneously experience the passage of time, best described by a stream or flow. Events that have a certain duration constantly slip into the past. The flow constitutes itself into an event that might be anticipated, then actually experienced, and later remembered. This very phenomenon constitutes our experience of temporality.

The speed with which time flows can vary considerably. The allocation of attention to time or to events constitutes the first of two basic factors which influence whether the flow of time “speeds up” or “slows down.” When we focus our attention on time, time slows down. When we are distracted from the passage of time, it speeds up. The upper portion of Figure 1 depicts this relationship graphically. The more we attend to the passage of time (left portion of the upper triangle), the slower the subjective passage of time and the longer the duration of experienced time. The more we pay attention to events around us (right portion of the upper triangle), the faster the subjective passage of time and the shorter the duration of experienced time. Thus, Figure 1 applies to the situation in which we attempt to achieve a sense of the flow of time, that is, we are “prospectively” (at present) attending to time (we are interested in how fast time goes by). When absorbed in entertaining activities, like watching a dramatic play or working on something exciting, we do not pay as much attention to time, and time “flies by.” Attentional models of time perception have been formulated to account for these phenomena by assuming an internal “clock,” similar to a stopwatch with a pacemaker and an accumulator, which emits and stores temporal units, respectively, and represents subjective time.

Emotional processes have an influence on whether attention is directed to or distracted from time. A subjective slowing of the flow of time is often experienced when we are bored, anxious, or depressed because when we are suffering from psychological distress, we have fewer meaningful thoughts and engage less in entertaining activities. Consequently, time becomes the focus of attention and is perceived as slowing down. Impulsive individuals often experience time as passing too slowly. As they easily become impatient in everyday waiting situations or when few distracting events are happening, these individuals pay more attention to time and subsequently experience an intensive deceleration of time. In contrast, when we are in good spirits, we usually are not focused on the passage of time. We may be absorbed in our activities and “forget” about time. When we finally get around to checking the time, it appears to have passed very quickly, and we are astonished.

...