Felt Time: The Science of How We Experience Time

by Marc Wittmann, Erik Butler (Translator)

An expert explores the riddle of subjective time, from why time speeds up as we grow older to the connection between time and consciousness.

We have widely varying perceptions of time. Children have trouble waiting for anything. (“Are we there yet?”) Boredom is often connected to our sense of time passing (or not passing). As people grow older, time seems to speed up, the years flitting by without a pause. How does our sense of time come about? In Felt Time, Marc Wittmann explores the riddle of subjective time, explaining our perception of time—whether moment by moment, or in terms of life as a whole. Drawing on the latest insights from psychology and neuroscience, Wittmann offers a new answer to the question of how we experience time.

Wittmann explains, among other things, how we choose between savoring the moment and deferring gratification; why impulsive people are bored easily, and why their boredom is often a matter of time; whether each person possesses a personal speed, a particular brain rhythm distinguishing quick people from slow people; and why the feeling of duration can serve as an “error signal,” letting us know when it is taking too long for dinner to be ready or for the bus to come. He considers the practice of mindfulness, and whether it can reduce the speed of life and help us gain more time, and he describes how, as we grow older, subjective time accelerates as routine increases; a fulfilled and varied life is a long life. Evidence shows that bodily processes—especially the heartbeat—underlie our feeling of time and act as an internal clock for our sense of time. And Wittmann points to recent research that connects time to consciousness; ongoing studies of time consciousness, he tells us, will help us to understand the conscious self.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Philosophy, Neuroscience, Physics, Audiobook

185 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2012

About the author

Marc Wittmann is Research Fellow at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health in Freiburg, Germany, and the author of Felt Time: The Psychology of How We Perceive Time (MIT Press).

Reviews

[X · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ideas in the book are thought provoking. But the writing style is horrible. Basically a dissertation that's been put forth as a book.

Book summary: If you want to live longer, slow down time by filling it with (meaningful) novel experiences. Routine makes time go faster.

[Tudor Ștefănescu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mix between science and philosophy the book discusses things like: how long is "a moment" (around 3 seconds), how do we know how much time has past (by listening to our internal clocks/processes: heartbeat, how hungry we are, etc. and observing external processes), why do we feel time is passing faster with age (we make fewer memories and those that we make are fading faster), the relation between time and "self" - you need time to be in touch with you in order to be you... etc. Short but at times difficult to follow, still it well worths the effort.

[Greta · Rating 4 out of 5]

My desire to read more science books in 2017 and my own personal and professional interests motivated me to pick up this book. Like many others, I have had the experience of losing loved ones “before their time” and that experience profoundly changed the way I perceived time. In my work life, I am interested in how and why some people invest their present time and resources into creating a better future for their communities, even though they may not experience or even see the rewards during their lifetime.

I learned that Political Myopia is the term for what happens when a culture is short-sighted and caters to its citizens’ present wants and desires by creating debts that its future generations will be forced to pay. It’s a depressingly relevant idea but one that I’m glad to have a name for.

When children learn to delay gratification for a future reward, it is dependent on them actually receiving the positive benefit of a reward. The author uses the example of children who are told that they can either eat one marshmallow now or wait for a duration of time and then they will get to eat two marshmallows. But what if the child waits and the two marshmallows never come? If it were me, I’d learn quickly to eat the first marshmallow while I had the chance.

How then are we to motivate people, especially adults, to sacrifice today for future rewards they will never experience? Wittman writes: ” Therefore, we need to expend greater effort and invest more imagination for our ideas about the future, which are abstract and hypothetical, to compete with the concrete, emotional demands of the present.”

Here are some other interesting things I learned from this book:

- Participating in and even just watching sports can help us perceive time in healthy ways. One reason why we love sports is because they allow us to get lost in moments of focused intensity, whether watching or playing. Additionally, successful athletes must let go of immediate past failures (e.g. missing that last free throw) in order to focus on the present.
- “The greater the store of lived experience – that is, the more emotional coloration and variety one’s life has – the longer one’s lifetime seems, subjectively.” One of the keys to living a full life is to seek out new experiences, especially things that you will do for the first time. New experiences make time seem to slow down which is why one week on vacation experiencing something different each day is later remembered to have felt much longer than a typical week at home.
- Time management is really emotions management. It’s more about making wise use of yourself and your feelings.
- Time expands (seems to take up more time than it actually does) in specific circumstances: extreme danger, extreme happiness, and meditation.
- We don’t actually perceive time. If we were put in isolation chambers we would not know how much time was passing. What we experience when we seem to perceive time is really change and movement.
- Different cultures experience time differently (industrialized vs. non-technologically advanced, rural vs. urban, temperate climate vs. tropical). Cultures that focus more on the future are also cultures that generate more wealth.
-“Boredom involves becoming directly aware of the fact that one is trapped in time”

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and there are many ways in which it has already enriched my life. Frankly, I didn’t realize how much could be said about time. It’s not the type of book I usually read and I’ve resolved to read more like it.

I’d recommend it for anyone who wants to think more about time and how to make the most of it, anyone interested in meditation and mindfulness, and anyone with a strong nerd streak.

[Holly · Rating 3 out of 5]

An overview of psychological and brain research into how humans perceive time and the small differences in temporal perception between us, as well as our personal experiences of time's expansion and contraction over a lifetime and within our days. Explanations of how, for example, in a moment of fear or violence, like a car accident, when it feels as if time expands and events seem to run in slow motion - this may actually be caused by our brains and biological systems "speeding up" (paradoxically).

Wouldn't it be fascinating to merge this research with studies of the possibilities and paradoxes of time travel! Alas, psychologists and neuroscientists don't write about relativity and wormholes, and physicists don't study the anterior insular cortex . . . But what about temporal consciousness? ~ Probably the arena for novelists.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is common to hear people lament that time seems to go ever faster the older one gets. I remember lazy summer afternoons, when the days seemed to stretch out forever. As a kid I would spend summer days waking and scavenging for ripe raspberries in the garden before checking the pool to see if the water was warm enough yet for a swim. I would stretch out in the grass or the concrete and look for shapes in the clouds, go on long bike rides with my childhood playmates, find insects aplenty and catch fireflies at night. Long conversations, plenty of daydreaming, listening to crickets and noticing the smell in the air as a thunderstorm approached. Some days felt interminable. The schooldays likewise felt incredibly long, watching the seconds pass in math class, doodling in my notebook as we learned about the U.S. Civil War. Then at a certain point, things seemed to speed up. Routine crept in. As we approach the start of 2026, I feel that January 2025 was only yesterday.

In Felt Time, the concept of subjective time is unraveled by German psychologist Marc Wittmann, using philosophy, psychology and scans of the human brain. On one hand, we can say that when we are younger, one year represents a much larger portion of our lives than when we are older. If we are 10-years-old, one year is 1/10th of our lives. If we are 80, it represents only 1/80th part. But this alone does not explain why we feel time the way we do. Why do some people feel time passes faster than others of the same age and relatively similar experience?

It is this that Wittmann seeks to explore. While his analysis is fascinating, I found one blind spot to be the lack of class analysis. While he explains that people with more variety in their lives - less routine, more novel experiences - and those who practice mindfulness are able to savor time and experience it more slowly, he does not pay much attention to the fact that there is a class element to this. It is easier for an upper-middle class manager to practice mindfulness than for the mother who is working two jobs to put food on the table for her children.

The work deals with delayed gratification, mindfulness, memory, and so much more. I found the material fascinating overall. It gave me quite a bit to think about. That said, as I started to write this review, the words and ideas came to me very quickly and now, I find myself struggling to think of what to say next. Felt time indeed.

[M'S Fatih · Rating 4 out of 5]

Öncelikle kitap zaman algımızın nasıl oluştuğu, bundan hangi bedensel süreçlerin rol oynadığını felsefi yönleri de işin içine katarak açıklıyor. Burada şimdiki zamanımızın nasıl ve neden meydana geldiği, örneğin tehlike anında zamanın bizim için genişleyerek 5 saniyeyi daha uzun hissederken, tam tersine saatlerce süren monoton eylemimizi saniyeler ölçeğinde bile neden hatırlamadığımızı bilimsel açıklamalar ve yapılan ilginç deneylerle açıklıyor. Kitabın devamında farkındalığın önemi, günümüzde hızlanan dünyada kendimize zaman ayırmamamızın nelere mal olabileceği anlatılıyor. Kendi konusunu detaylı olarak anlatan, yormayan, okunması zevkli bir kitaptı benim için.

[Bengihan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Çocukluğumuzda hissettiğimiz zamanın çok yavaş akıyor gibi hissedilmesinin nedenini ve yetiskinlikte de bir o kadar hızlı geçtiğini hissetmeye başladığım şu zamanlarda, bana yeni bakış açıları sunduğunu söyleyebilirim. Kronobiyoloji gibi bir alanın varlığından da haberdar olmam bu kitap sayesinde oldu 😊 kısa ve anlatmak istediği konuları bilimsel sonuçlar da olsa sizleri sıkmadan okuyabileceginiz güzel bir kitap olduğunu düşünüyorum ve okumamış olanlara öneririm. Ayrıca Facts adlı YouTube kanalındaki A boy and a man talk about life isimli videoyu da izlemenizi onerebilirim. 7 yaşındaki bir çocuk ile 64 yaşındaki adamın konuşması bana çok ilginç geldi. Aynı şekilde küçük bir kız çocuğu ile ondan yaşça büyük bir kadının konuşması da galiba bulunuyor. Iki video arasındaki farklar ve konuşulan konular farklılık gösterebilir. 😀

[Sabareesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The object of this book is to discuss the subjective nature and perception of time. A discussion of the perception of time necessarily makes one reflect on all the time one squanders in one's life, the importance of experiencing the time we live all the more so that we may experience our lives and not let it run by as we spend our time in mundane everyday tasks. Routines are a necessary part of life, and although they enable a lot of good, they also lead to a severely diminished experience of the time we live through owing to performing non-rewarding tasks that arise out of necessity.

The book offers a lot of inputs, thoughts, perspectives and insights on everyday phenomena we face but don't pay attention to such as boredom and quick passage of time. On paying attention and analyzing these, or reading analyses such as those presented in the book (e.g. ch 6), one can reclaim one's time and also learn to spend it better. I, personally, believe that when you better understand the underlying mechanics and working of something, you're far better placed to manipulate it and meddle with it.

Note: There's also a fair bit of scientific research data, which did not hold a lot of interest for me.

Overall: 3 stars.
Worth another read for the deliberations and reflections it forces the reader to make with regards to a wise spending of one's time - the original, strictly non renewable, limited commodity.

[charlotte, · Rating 2 out of 5]

ik u don't have to have a thesis for a book but it'd be nice if it had felt like this book was coming to some sort of conclusion rather than being a group of vaguely interconnected bits of research

also would have been nice to get some analysis rather than presenting things like freud, psychoanalysis & terror management theory uncritically (and the fact that some animals supposedly have a sense of self, which u cannot prove)

[Shelley Diamond · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a good introduction to the psychology of time. Very basic stuff. If you know nothing about it, it will be useful. If you already know the basics, you may not learn much that is new....

[Piyanosuz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sonunda bitti... Bu ‘sonunda’ kelimesini kitaptaki tıp bilimi kavramlarına borçluyum :) Pek ilgilenmediğim ve bilmediğim bir dal olduğu için o kısımları okurken zorlandım. Ama tabi ‘zaman’ kavramı çoğunlukla psikoloji biliminin de içerisinde incelenmiş buna da ayrıca sevindim. Ki önceleri zaman konusu bir araştırma konusu bile değilken daha sonra psikolojik ve nörolojik araştırmalarda epeyce kendine yer bulmuş. Nasıl bulamasın ? Benim de en merak ettiğim konulardan biriydi. Kitap kitaba götürür der çok sevdiğim bir şair, bu kitapta da bol bol isim ve kitap önerisi aldım kendime. Bazı beklemediğim sorularımın cevabını bulabildim. Bazı sorularımın cevabı olmadığını ve çok karmaşık olduğunu da gördüm. Beynimizde zamana ait bir yerin bulunmaması ilginç, hep beraber bir elden bunun için çalışıyorlarmış. Örnek verilen deneyler harikaydı. Asıl zaman öznel zaman. Bunu uzun uzun hissetmek bizim elimizde mi? Bir anı yoğun olarak deneyimlersek zaman uzuyormuş, anılarda da kocaman bir yeri oluyormuş kısacık bir an bile olsa- fiziksel koşullarda- O zaman zamanımızı uzatalım. Ünlü filozofların dediği gibi hayat yeterince uzundur. :) Peki siz hayatınızı uzatmak için zamanınızı nasıl harcıyorsunuz ?

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bit of a shocking moment when after these chapters about the marshmallow test and circadian cycles and neurons, Marina Abramovic shows up as the concluding paragraph

also I would say that this review is not reflective of great prose or a distinctive style b/c this is a translation -
useful information
(1) life doesn't go by faster b/c portions of time are smaller in proportion to your total life (like some people say "oh years go by faster when you're an adult because when you're 2 a year is 1/2 of your life but when you're 30 it's 1/30th) - mostly has to do with novelty and variation
(2) the marshmallow test is Fake don't believe it
(3) breathng and heartbeats are why if you're locked in a blackout tank of room-temperature water with no sensations you'll still be able to tell that some time went by

idk I thought it was a pretty decent pop science book and like if people give outliers 4 stars this book should get at least as many

[Yahya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zamanı nasıl hisseder insan? Biyolojik bir altyapısı, beynimizde bir içsel saatimiz var mı sorularının cevabını arayan bir kitap. Hepimizin zaman deneyimi neden öznel? Neden bazılarımıza göre zaman hızla akıp giderken bazılarımıza göre hiç akmaz. Ve tabi ki belli bir yaştan sonra çoğumuza göre daha hızlı akıyor. Yazar insanın öznel zaman deneyiminin hem içsel biyolojik altyapısını bulma peşinde çünkü kesin bir cevap yok, hem de hepimizin yaşadığı olumlu-olumsuz deneyimlerin zaman algımızı nasıl etkilediği üzerinde duruyor. İnsan neden şimdiki zamandan çok geçmişte yaşıyor ya da gelecek ile ilgili plan yapar. Anı yaşamak neden daha zor bunlar hepimizin merak ettiği sorular. Kitapta bazı cevaplar var tabii ki ama hiç kesin yanıt yok. Kitabı okurken kendi adıma konuyla bağlantılı olarak iki kitap daha keşfettim. Bu tarz konulara merakı olan arkadaşlar için güzel bir kitap.

[Beyza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Özellikle beynimizin işleyişine dair birsürü yeni şey öğrendiğim ve günlük yaşamımda sık sık aklıma gelmesiyle farkında olmadan zaman hakkında ne çok düşündüğümü fark ettiğim bir kitaptı. Felsefi ve nöropsikolojik tartışmaları bir arada okumanın da çok keyifli olduğunu söyleyebilirim. Çok sade bir anlatımının olması da bir diğer artısı. Konuyla ilgilenen herkesin beğeneceğuni düşünüyorum.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

“How stupid to forget our mortality, and put off sensible plans to our fiftieth and sixtieth years, aiming to begin life from a point at which few have arrived.” —Seneca

[Nihal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Konusu ilgi çekiciydi. Zaman algısını hem bilimsel hem de psikolojik açıdan ele almıştı. Ama kitabın sonu sanki kitap bitmemiş, yarım bırakılmış duygusu uyandırdı.

[Bade Gaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Özet bir kitaptı, zaman ile ilgili sorgulamak ve düşünmek isteyen insanlara yeni yollar açan, aslında bilip anlamlandıramadığı hisleri anlamasını sağlayan, deneyler ile güçlendirilmiş güzel bir kitap. Korona günleri için de oldukça ideal bir seçim. Metis’e teşekkürler. 🙏🏻

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read on how we perceive time.

[Realini Ionescu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Felt Time – The Psychology of How We Perceive Time by Marc Wittmann and Erik Butler
9 out of 10


The Stoic philosopher Seneca, Fyodor Dostoevsky and other luminaries are quoted inside this instructive, useful, very good book which can help readers manage time, learn its significance, avoid its waste, and understand better how it works (or does not) in various periods of our lives – the old have a different perception

Seneca was not just a philosopher, but one of the wealthiest men of ancient history (actually, one of the richest ever) and he had wise things to say about most things, including time https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/... especially in On The Shortness of Time
Counterintuitively, Seneca insists that ‘we have enough time, life is not short, it is just that we do not see time as the valuable resource that it is, indeed, we treat it as if it were infinite, waste it, get bored often, which is an indication that we are not doing what we should’ – words to that effect, more or less, and what a revelation they are

We have had this discussion at the…sauna Downtown, where among the hoi polloi and the morons, there is one particular ‘university professor’ – looking at how he lectures, with expletives, he may not be a teacher at all – who takes all the air in the room, brings down the mood, and overall, is the paradigm of wasting time
Flow https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/08/... is a classic of psychology by the co-founder of positive psychology, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, which explains what we need to reach Optimal Experience – this is an autotelic act, we are in control, nothing else matters, we have clear goals, skills match challenges, feedback is constant and key for the topic here – time is expanding or compressing

‘Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour…Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute…’ this what the genius that has discovered the Theory of Relativity, Albert Einstein, said and we can learn from this that we can control our experiences, to the degree where we choose the optimal sensation
Carpe Diem is an old wise slogan, victorious generals also had a man in their chariot, while they were parading through Ancient Rome, telling them ‘Memento mori’ aka remember you are mortal, so that they do not get too self-absorbed, both would be useful leit motifs that will keep us concentrated on the present

‘Happiness Activity No 9: Savoring Life’s Joys-paying close attention, taking delight in life’s momentary pleasures and wonders, through thinking, writing, drawing or sharing with another’ is from the glorious The How of Happiness https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/... by Sonja Lyubomirsky

Another monumental chef d’oeuvre that looks at the passing of time (also at the way it is frozen, somewhat) is The Magic Mountain https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/09/... by mesmerizing Thomas Mann – at that high altitude, in the sanatorium, with days looking like each other, time flies
One way to win the Time Game would be to play The Glasperlenspiel aka The Glass Bead Game https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/... which is a magnum opus by Hermann Hesse, winner of the Nobel Prize and author of overwhelming masterpieces, such as Narciss and Goldmund, The Steppen Wolf, Siddhartha, novels that can change the life of readers and respect the rule listed at the bottom

Glasperlenspiel is the Game in which intellectuals immerse, the nec plus ultra, learning, meditating, playing and listening to music, in other words The Happiness Formula, the paradise that future generations could live in, if Artificial Intelligence does most of the work and then humans can get involved in what matters, follow their calling
Fyodor Dostoevsky is also included in Felt Time, with his incredible experience in front of the…execution squad, where he had been sent following a death sentence – looking at his last three minutes on earth, the writer decides to look at his life in one minute, say goodbye to family and friends in another and in the final minute to admire a ray of sunshine that falls on a belle tower nearby, only he is pardoned just before the final moments

This intense, shattering, unique experience is found in the magnum opera https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/01/... where readers find what the man facing the capital punishment is feeling, how he would rather live on a bare rock, in the middle of the ocean than die
It is also a lesson in how to live, to anticipate those last days, hours, minutes, and look for fervor, buoyancy, arcadian events, halcyon days, try and apply the rules mentioned in Flow, and bring ourselves Into The Zone on a daily basis, instead of staying bored – one important decision is to find The Calling, what makes sense to us

Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar explains in his lectures on positive psychology, the most popular in the history of that Ivy League institution, how we identify The Calling: there are three groups, what we like to do, what we are good at, and what has meaning for us, and where they intersect, this is the area of activities, jobs we have to select from, because then we would do in our lives what we want, and get paid for it…studies have shown that approximately one third of humans in one job work for the money, another third for promotion and the like, and the last because it their calling, needless to say, we need to be in the latter category, of happy, efficient, successful, radiant earthlings

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concepts in this book are very interesting to me and there were a few instances where interesting results were mentioned. However, overall the book suffered from a lack of a coherent overall thesis and significant repetition. There was a feeling of a lack of seeing the forest for all the trees, and I don't have a good sense of his overall point or thesis. The book meanders all over the place, from details on psychology studies to rather bland and typical advice about how to live one's life with a more full sense of time. The jumping around was jarring and led to me not really getting a full sense of the depth to which one could take any one of the ideas suggested. For example, one chapter started with philosophical discussions of consciousness and sense of self and ended with advice on how to manage one's time in our busy contemporary world. Overall, there must be better and more coherent books out there on this topic.

[Aslı · Rating 4 out of 5]

Adından da anlaşıldığı gibi kitap zaman konusunu ele alıyor. Ama biraz değişik hem bilimsel hem felsefik denebilir. Bilimsel açıklamalar için çok güzel bir kaynakçası da var. Şemalar ve görseller de eklenmiş.
Kitabı okumak bana çok zevk verdi açıkçası. Hep dediğim gibi ne zaman bilimsel bir kitap okusam "Ne olurdu şu okuduğum bilgilerin hepsi aklımda kalsa." diye düşünüyorum. Çok güzel bilgiler öğrendim.Ama kafamda da yeni bir sürü soru işareti oluştu.Aynı bilimin ilerleme şekli gibi. :)
Psikoloji ile ilgilenenler için de patolojiler için değişik bir bakış açısı kazandırabilecek bölümleri olduğunu düşünüyorum.

[Corey Astill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating insights on how we as humans experience the time of our lives. The length of a moment, the texture of our memories, why time passes so quickly during engaging activities versus the painful slow passage of time while standing in line. The research yields many insights for how build more memories and make the time count in terms of how we later reflect on our lives. I highly recommend this book.

[Casey Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a grown up book! It's a topic that I've watch various documentaries (etc) on so a fair amount was stuff I knew, but the telling and the framing was all good. In particular, I'm connecting with the notion that when you get old, the days get longer but the decades get short. The takeaway of "do different things to make your life feel longer" is a good one.

[Fred Goh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A rather abrupt ending to an otherwise fascinating and interesting read. This book is a somewhat superficial yet highly succinct summary of recent research and theories of the self, the subjective sense of time, neurobiology and how it all comes together. Worth a read.

[Sinem Eylem · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic itself is certainly interesting and the book will provide you some information from a scientific as well as a philosophical perspective, but there’s really no depth, structure, or a proper ending. It leaves you feeling that the book is incomplete.

[Tracy Brower · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not so great. There was some good research but I didn’t really learn anything I didn’t already know. Maybe the author wasn’t good at generating insight from the research? And the end was so abrupt—really strange. Like the author just put down the pen and the editor was okay with that too.

[Russ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two things I took away: 1) I drive the way I do because I perceive time differently than the people around me (especially passengers). 2) It's OK to slow down sometimes.

[Jennie Chantal]

DNF at 26%
Not sure who the intended audience of this book is but I don’t think it’s the general public. Very dry writing style. Would have loved some personal stories included a la Oliver Sacks.

[JY Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first ever book about the psychology of time. It is highly academic and require an academic background to appreciate, spans across various topics from perception, neuroscience, and individual differences. The later part also had some interesting philosophical treatise referencing Heidegger. It is a pretty coherent piece of writing that can catch the interest of many psychology students, and can inspire new lines of research in fields like temporal resolution, neuropsychology of time, individual differences in time perspectives, and affective forecasting. The most interesting part was the paragraph describing the paradox of time: the more mundane an event is, the slower time seems to pass in the moment but in hindsight it would have seemed like a short day. This books manages to balance being moderately interesting and academically rigorous.

However, the overall writing lacks a life of its own and can be unapproachable. There was no clear and specific purpose about each chapter and paragraph, and often had too much unexplained jargon. This is one of those books that would be considered mediocre if it wasn’t for the extremely intriguing and unique topic that almost no one else writes about, which happens to be surprisingly important. It also has no satisfying closure, even though (to be fair) there wasn’t much of an opening to begin with. All in all, for other readers, this book will depend on whether you are interested in a more approachable literature review of time psychology and philosophy. Some of the philosophical stuff can be slightly mind-blowing. Otherwise, the book really lacks a specific thesis to bring to readers aside from ‘hey guys, there is some psychological research about time that you might be interested in’.

[Moh. Nasiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

روان‌شناسی ادراک زمان
این کتاب بییشر از نگاه نوروساینس و البته کمی فلسفه به درک ما از زمان پرداخته هست که برخی آزمایشات را هم در اینجا آورده هست.
چرا با پیرتر شدن زمان سرعت می گیرد: آیا افزایش روزمرگیّ زندگی و حافظه نقش تعیین کننده ای دارند؟
چگونه کمال زندگی(زندگی خوب) به توانایی ما در انتخاب آزادانه بین لذت بردن از لحظه و ناراضی بودن بستگی دارد؛ اینکه چرا افراد سست اراده(تکانشی) زودتر خسته می شوند، مسئله زمان است!
آیا هر شخصی دارای ریتم مغزی خاصی است که افراد سریع را از افراد کُند جدا می کند – موضوعی برای تحقیقات علمی است: آیا ریتم مغز در شرایط ترسناک سرعت می گیرد؟
آیا می توان از طریق خودآگاهی، از سرعت زندگی‌ای که درک می‌کنیم بکاهیم و در نتیجه زمان بیشتری به دست آوریم؛ مدیتیشن یکی از راه های کاهش(سرعت ) زمان ذهنی است.
چگونه عواطف و احساسات ما از بدن و زمان به شدت با هم ارتباط دارند

دریافت های ما از زمان در قرن جدید
جدا از بررسی های نوروساینس می توان گفت زمان مفهومی بس فراخ است که علم و فلسفه و مذهب را درگیر نموده است و بحث نفس گیر درخصوص زمان و آغاز جهان و دوام آن کماکان ادامه دارد.زمان به دو شکل انفسی(سابجکتیو) و آفاقی(آبجکتیو) قابل طرح و بررسی است که در شکل انفسی عمدتا متافیزیکی و هایدگری(دازاین) ، کانتی و آگوستینی و تجربه های عرفانی و لازمانی تجربه های نزدیک به مرگ(ان.دی.ای) و در شکل آفاقی بصورت فیزیک نیوتن و انشتینی بررسی می شود و در کل زمان به مفهوم دقیقتر در مقیاس جهان ماکرو و جهان میکرو بررسی می گردد در مقیاس ماکرو و کلان زمان بیشتر از آغاز بیگ بنگ و شروع جهان و کیهان و نسبیت انشتین و فضا-زمان و خمیدگی زمان بررسی می گردد و در مقیاس خرد و میکرو بیشتر در ابعاد ذرات بنیادی و رفتار آنها مثل ذرات کوانتومی و قانون دوم ترمودینامیک،آنتروپی و جهان های موازی و نظریه ریسمان بررسی می گردد. البته زمان از لحاظ خودآگاهی ذهنی و نوروساینس هم قابل بررسی و درک هست

مطالعه بیشتر کتاب
https://vrgl.ir/pPfUC