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On the Experience of Time (Science of Behaviour) by Robert E. Ornstein
How do we experience time? What do we use to experience it? In a series of remarkable experiments, Robert Ornstein shows that it is difficult to maintain an "inner clock" explanation of the experience of time and postulates a cognitive, information-processing approach. This approach alone makes sense out of the very different data of the experience of time and in particular of the experience of duration - the lengthening of duration under LSD, for example, or the effects of an experience felt to be a success rather than a failure, time in sensory deprivation, the time-order effect, or the influence of the administration of a sedative or stimulant drug.
Mass Market Paperback
First published January 30, 1970
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About the author
Robert Ornstein
28 books99 followersPsychologist Robert Ornstein's wide-ranging and multidisciplinary work has won him awards from more than a dozen organizations, including the American Psychological Association and UNESCO. His pioneering research on the bilateral specialization of the brain has done much to advance our understanding of how we think.
He received his bachelor's degree in psychology from City University of New York in 1964 and his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1968. His doctoral thesis won the American Institutes for Research Creative Talent Award and was published immediately as a book, On the Experience of Time.
Since then he has written or co-written more than twenty other books on the nature of the human mind and brain and their relationship to thought, health and individual and social consciousness, which have sold over six million copies and been translated into a dozen other languages. His textbooks have been used in more than 20,000 university classes.
Dr. Ornstein has taught at the University of California Medical Center and Stanford University, and he has lectured at more than 200 colleges and universities in the U.S. and overseas. He is the president and founder of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), an educational nonprofit dedicated to bringing important discoveries concerning human nature to the general public.
Among his many honors and awards are the UNESCO award for Best Contribution to Psychology and the American Psychological Foundation Media Award "for increasing the public understanding of psychology."
He received his bachelor's degree in psychology from City University of New York in 1964 and his Ph.D. in psychology from Stanford University in 1968. His doctoral thesis won the American Institutes for Research Creative Talent Award and was published immediately as a book, On the Experience of Time.
Since then he has written or co-written more than twenty other books on the nature of the human mind and brain and their relationship to thought, health and individual and social consciousness, which have sold over six million copies and been translated into a dozen other languages. His textbooks have been used in more than 20,000 university classes.
Dr. Ornstein has taught at the University of California Medical Center and Stanford University, and he has lectured at more than 200 colleges and universities in the U.S. and overseas. He is the president and founder of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge (ISHK), an educational nonprofit dedicated to bringing important discoveries concerning human nature to the general public.
Among his many honors and awards are the UNESCO award for Best Contribution to Psychology and the American Psychological Foundation Media Award "for increasing the public understanding of psychology."
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 1, 2024
A RARE BOOK ON A SUBJECT THAT PUZZLES MOST OF US
Robert Ornstein (born 1942) is a psychologist, researcher and writer, perhaps best known for his work on left brain/right brain studies. He has taught at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, and been professor at Stanford University. He is also chairman of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, and has promoted modern Sufism (e.g., Idries Shah). He has written/edited other books such as 'The Psychology of Consciousness,' 'Symposium on Consciousness,' etc.
He wrote in the first chapter of this 1969 book, "This book is concerned with the times of ordinary experience, and particularly the experience of duration. Temporal experience, in its many forms, has been of continuing concern to psychologists and psychologically oriented philosophers since the time of the Greeks." (Pg. 15)
He states, "The idea that a certain interval is important for time experience merely because it is sometimes... estimated 'accurately' seems to be fostered by the confusion of our arbitrary clock time of hours, minutes and seconds, with 'real' time." (Pg. 27) Later, he asserts, "it is quite difficult to maintain an 'inner clock' type of explanation since there has not been any agreement on what could be the 'clock,' or how a 'clock' such as heart rate, body temperature, etc. could give rise to time experience." (Pg. 82)
He summarizes, "Although psychologists and physiologists and biologists have for a long period attempted to study time experience there has been a 'maze' of postulated possible mechanisms proposed for time.... time has been treated as if it were a sensory process... Some have identified 'real' time with the clock time of minutes, seconds, etc. They forget that our clock is but one arbitrary means of defining time. It is a convenience, used as an arbitrary standard, useful for meeting and making arrangements. But it is not 'real' time any more than the 'time' of boiling rice is 'real.' One may measure out one's life in coffee spoons as well as with a calendar, an hourglass or with pots of boiling rice. A 'time basis' of duration experience founded on the interval at which experiential and clock times sometimes coincide is of no special significance. Additionally, this interval is not even consistently estimated." (Pg. 34)
He concludes, "Returning to the beginning question, 'What is time?' we have gone through all this to find that we cannot answer it. Time is too diverse a concept to be amenable to one answer. Time is too many things, many processes, many types of experience. We cannot even answer the much simpler question, 'What is the experience of time?' since we have seen that time experience is not a unitary 'sense.' ... we have an answer to one aspect of one variety of time, that of the experience of duration. This experience seems most usefully considered to be formed from our memories from our experiences... We then create our own duration experience from our memories." (Pg. 109-110)
Even though Ornstein admits that he cannot answer his own question, his musings are nevertheless of great interest to anyone studying these types of issues.
Robert Ornstein (born 1942) is a psychologist, researcher and writer, perhaps best known for his work on left brain/right brain studies. He has taught at the Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute, and been professor at Stanford University. He is also chairman of the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, and has promoted modern Sufism (e.g., Idries Shah). He has written/edited other books such as 'The Psychology of Consciousness,' 'Symposium on Consciousness,' etc.
He wrote in the first chapter of this 1969 book, "This book is concerned with the times of ordinary experience, and particularly the experience of duration. Temporal experience, in its many forms, has been of continuing concern to psychologists and psychologically oriented philosophers since the time of the Greeks." (Pg. 15)
He states, "The idea that a certain interval is important for time experience merely because it is sometimes... estimated 'accurately' seems to be fostered by the confusion of our arbitrary clock time of hours, minutes and seconds, with 'real' time." (Pg. 27) Later, he asserts, "it is quite difficult to maintain an 'inner clock' type of explanation since there has not been any agreement on what could be the 'clock,' or how a 'clock' such as heart rate, body temperature, etc. could give rise to time experience." (Pg. 82)
He summarizes, "Although psychologists and physiologists and biologists have for a long period attempted to study time experience there has been a 'maze' of postulated possible mechanisms proposed for time.... time has been treated as if it were a sensory process... Some have identified 'real' time with the clock time of minutes, seconds, etc. They forget that our clock is but one arbitrary means of defining time. It is a convenience, used as an arbitrary standard, useful for meeting and making arrangements. But it is not 'real' time any more than the 'time' of boiling rice is 'real.' One may measure out one's life in coffee spoons as well as with a calendar, an hourglass or with pots of boiling rice. A 'time basis' of duration experience founded on the interval at which experiential and clock times sometimes coincide is of no special significance. Additionally, this interval is not even consistently estimated." (Pg. 34)
He concludes, "Returning to the beginning question, 'What is time?' we have gone through all this to find that we cannot answer it. Time is too diverse a concept to be amenable to one answer. Time is too many things, many processes, many types of experience. We cannot even answer the much simpler question, 'What is the experience of time?' since we have seen that time experience is not a unitary 'sense.' ... we have an answer to one aspect of one variety of time, that of the experience of duration. This experience seems most usefully considered to be formed from our memories from our experiences... We then create our own duration experience from our memories." (Pg. 109-110)
Even though Ornstein admits that he cannot answer his own question, his musings are nevertheless of great interest to anyone studying these types of issues.
Displaying 1 of 1 review