About time…

Over the years, across The Psychologist and Research Digest, we have had a fair bit of coverage dealing with time perception, time management, reaction time and more. We thought we would collect links to those articles and interviews here.

In March 2024, our editor Jon Sutton, and Alina Ivan, interviewed psychologists and authors who write about time perception and memory.

'Without time there will be no memory'
Chris Moulin, professor at the Laboratoire de Psychologie et NeuroCognition (LPNC UMR 5105), Université Grenoble Alpes.

'We spend most of our time somewhere that isn't now'
Author Catherine Webb, who also writes fantasy novels for adults under the name Kate Griffin, and science fiction as Claire North.

'We are fully in time… we are time'
Oliver Burkeman, author of 'Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals'.

'Human perception of time is one of the biggest limitations of being human'
Science fiction writer, and psychology graduate, Adrian Tchaikovsky.

'We human beings are just flashes of sunlight on a pond'
Richard Fisher is the author of 'The Long View: Why We Need to Transform How the World Sees Time'. Alina Ivan asks him about that psychological relationship.

In August 2012, we had a special issue on time in everyday life:

High time
Ruth Ogden and Catharine Montgomery on the effect of drugs on the perception of time

Children and time
Sylvie Droit-Volet on what we can learn about the biological and cognitive basis of time from the way children judge duration.

Interview: 'Time is all you've got' 
Catherine Loveday and Jon Sutton talk to John Wearden.

Experiencing time in daily life
Why does a watched pot never boil, or time fly when you're having fun? Dan Zakay has some answers

Time and the sleeping brain
Penelope A. Lewis and Warren H. Meck argue that the importance of timing leads the brain to protect against damage to the system – while we sleep

How emotions cloud our sense of time
Clare Allelly describes the surprising impact of facial expressions and food on judgements of time

Time and information processing
Luke A. Jones asks whether brain time is the same as clock time.

In March 2024, we met several psychologists and authors with an interest in time perception:

Beyond the special features, there has been plenty of other coverage.

During Covid, Liam Myles explored a lockdown time paradox, and Steve Taylor looked to make sense of 'time expansion experiences' (with response). Many of us spent more time watching films - here, the editing is crucial to our perception of time. 

Considering reaction times, we've discovered people with quicker reactions are more likely to live longer; that people with Tourette's may have superior timing control; there are interesting relationships with dyslexia too; and reaction time featured in our Psychology A to Z.

Doing the 'time warp', we learn that the gaze of others impacts time perception; other people can reduce our tendency to underestimate how long tasks will take us; there are links with interoception, anger, boredom proneness, and working memory capacity; that the link between 'time flying' and enjoying ourselves might be two-way; that the feeling you're 'hanging on the telephone' may depend on factors other than time; and that there is debate over whether time really does go faster as you get older.

We think about time in terms of space, something illustrated beautifully in the children's book 'Where The Wild Things Are'.

What about time pressure? Apparently, it can have surprising benefits at work, and may actually improve decision making in emergencies. When work and home collide, your take on time matters. Being paid by the hour changes how we think about time, and not in a good way. Good time management appears to have a greater impact on wellbeing than work performance does. Others say we can best use our days by 'moving out of defence and into offence'. Sadly, we're useless at choosing between time-saving options.

Intriguingly, children use time words long before they understand what they mean. People with dementia can become 'untethered from time'. Some even argue that mental time travel has shaped human psychology and evolution. Ultimately, as we are often reminded, 'time is all you have got', and people who prioritise it over money are happier. Perhaps we should take a leaf out of the younger generation's book: they tend to live for the moment more (well, they did in 2009… times change). Or just spend more time blinking.