Perception – Naurisha Kapoor

Perception is, put simply, our interpretation of the world around us. We perceive through five main senses: sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing. These senses’ capabilities often vary from person to person, resulting in different perceptual capabilities as well. Interestingly, we are also able to perceive time, despite not directly interacting with it as we would using the traditional five senses.

We are able to get a sense of time through our biological processes, one of the most notable being our circadian rhythm. These are our body’s 24-hour cycles that help regulate our essential functions, such as hunger and sleep. Though these are generally very reliable, experiences such as jet lag can confuse our circadian rhythms, and cause our perception of time to be skewed. We may also perceive time through other biological means, such as through possible pacemaker structures in our brain. Scientists have discovered that we tend to perceive time in 3-second blocks, called perceptual moments, and have trouble distinguishing between two sequential events if they happen within 10 milliseconds of each other. These findings indicate a common biological basis to time perception, what we might call an internal clock.

However, despite biological commonalities, the perception of time is also fundamentally subjective. Our emotions, past experiences, expectations, and even cultural background can impact how we perceive time and the world around us. For example, if you are feeling bored, time may seem to drag on, as compared to if you are joyful or overwhelmed, which may result in a faster perception of time. This subjectivity results in a phenomenon called felt time, also known as inner time, subjective time, and time consciousness. Considering this, it’s clear perception is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon, one we are constantly experiencing and being influenced by – whether we realize it or not.

References:

Grondin, S. (2020a). The perception of time: Your questions answered. Routledge.

Wittmann, M., & Butler, E. (2017). Felt Time: The psychology of how we perceive time. MIT Press.