How do we experience time? - Matt Danzico

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Why is that some experiences feel like they last forever, while others fly by? We tend to miscalculate the time it takes to engage in novel activities due to the influence of memories. Matt Danzico explains why your childhood feels like it lasted forever and why that beach vacation seemed like two months rather than two weeks.
Lesson by Matt Danzico, animation by London Squared Productions.

[@MoosTheMonk]

I thought I did 20 seconds... and this video is 3 hours long! I'll watch it again yesterday.

[@beatrix1120]

So that's why music always seams shorter the second time you listen to it.

[@emanalmutawa8564]

+Ross Armstrong YES! i experience that too now i think i know why :D

[@maniebrahimi7952]

And movies

[@joehey6702]

Considering how old this video is, how education is a blessing, and realizing how science has never been implemented into the culture, how important it is, specifically how important time Perception is, and how no one even cares to know about science, still baffles me. I love this stuff, I breathe this, I live this

[@KookaburraPunk]

Does it bother anyone else that he said he wanted you to twirl around, but then he had you hop on one foot?

[@Melicioel7]

+Amber Haas I got TRIGGERED: My brother made me twirl around on one foot and bark like a dog for his amusement lel jk

[@tatumd642]

At first I thought this was part of the experiment - something to do with the impact of expectation, perhaps.

[@michaelfrank6851]

It was definitely part of the experiment. He wanted you to think about what time perception you experienced, people who have more short term problems memory would remember the later on (hop) and people who didn’t would remember the earlier one (twirl)

[@dwightschrute491]

I got offended when he said 'hopefully'. 😅

[@ShawnRavenfire]

I think another reason why time appears to slow down during a car accident or falling from a great height is that your brain is being hit with adrenalin, making you process information at a faster rate, in the hope that you can use this information to survive an apparently dangerous situation. However, I find that often, newer experiences tend to feel shorter, because repeating the same experience is boring, and boring events feel longer compared with how quickly we wish they'd be over.

[@aldrickpeter]

So that's why time feels slower when I am prepping for an exam at the last minute

[@nope.13]

So basically even if you live till you're 80 it doesn't mean anything unless you made those years count by doing new experiments. The only way to truly live and feel like you lived those years is by making memories... those memories can make you feel you lived longer... I like this :)

[@iau]

In my first live presentation as a drummer, i felt i played perfectly fine. when i looked back at a video recording i was rushing hard through the whole thing. made me feel pretty bad, damn time dilation

[@lemonsys]

What if our individual experience of time is actually correct, in spite of it being different from everyone else's. We set the time standard as a clock and then assume human experience of time is in error, but what if it's not? If time is relative, dependent on the speed you are traveling, (according to einstein's relativity) who's to say it's not dependant on other things too? What if we actually live at varying speeds, not just in illusion but in reality? Science depends on experience, but here we run into a conflict of two experiences, the experience of changes in the clock, and our own experience of time. The current scientific view systematically invalidates the individual experience, and trusts the clock. But I think it's quite possible to build a theory which embraces both the individual experience of time, and measurements of the clock. Empiricism, or knowledge from experience has been corrupted, and now we use our beliefs about our past experience in order to invalidate other parts of our experience. Our beliefs about our experience (like our assumption that we perceive time incorrectly) has become more "true" than our true experience itself, which is that we perceive time differently at different times, and differently from each other. And the clock in this case can be very valuable if we use it to contrast our different experiences of time, rather than to invalidate them.

[@rahulgoyal589]

+Nathan Dyck I am really intrigued by that. If you're open to a discussion on this: a lot of things are self-experiences, it's true, and what's to say everything around you isn't a constructed illusion? You can only trust your perception. On the other hand, universal things that are experienced by us all, like the sun rising for a new day, or the sun setting, does happen after certain intervals; and we have a measurement of time, it's almost like a language, which we communicate with each other. Maybe the measurement is just a construct of looking at time in A particular way that avoids confusion in communication. If our self-perceptions of time are accurate, it's beneficial on an individual level?

[@annepayongayong]

This is very well-written!

[@michaelfrank6851]

I know this is 5 years late but I am reporting your comment for hurting my brain

[@lemonsys]

@@michaelfrank6851 lmaoo blast from the past - hope ur brain heals. I do not remember writing this lol

[@PedanticNo1]

I was in a car accident, I'll describe it: My left foot pushed down on its pedal, followed shortly thereafter by the right. I turned left onto 3rd street and regained consciousness in a hospital. Didn't even get to experience perceived time dilation, damn memory =[

[@nope.13]

The video started while I was on another tab, I thought something had happened to my computer. God, when the voice said "hello, human..." it made my heart sink...

[@smocal6022]

OH MY GOSH I was going to say thirty, but then I settled on 26. I got really excited

[@SinaShahandeh]

I did all the jumping and barking and I thought it was only 15 seconds. In contrast to this argument, unfamiliar experiences are percieved faster since you do not get bored and time flyes. Whereas if you are waiting for a doctor appointment in the office, every second feels like one hour!

[@CherishedChristianLife]

same here... im doing some research bc when i was little i was a sleepwalker and my parents always woke me up, and i was so confused, I heard everything in 2x, i even walk and move so fast, that's why my parents always had a bad time catching me, was so scary for me, eventually I concluded that was just sound hallucinations, but nowadays as a grown up i can't tolerate 2x speed, nor the 1.5x speed, i feel like is too overwhelming... i wish I could know why or find an explanation.

[@dirtyskills1]

i just love ted ed very educative i learn something interesting every day. thank you guys.

[@icdias99]

I GUESSED 27 SECONDS AND KINDA SCREAMED WHEN HE SAID THE TIME AM I A SUPERHERO YET

[@lzzzo]

Its seems that when we look back, the time passed just flew by, but when we look forward it seems like an eternity

[@JungleJargon]

Metabolism, the older you get, seems to shorten time (maybe because you do less by comparison). It seems time accelerates when you see your peers or even younger people getting old. Sometimes people get old very fast. There is, however, an apparent contradiction to that. Time also flies when you are having fun. Even though a lot is happening, time seems to go by fast. I estimated 15 seconds because I know people overestimate and I also didn't hop on one leg and bark like a dog.

[@luciusatkinson6665]

My intuition told me it was 27 seconds, but then I thought analytically and chose 23 seconds. Utilize your intuition, guys.

[@devotedamvs4658]

I cant believe that I actually did this at 4am in the morning and also underestimating the time and not overestimating... 💀

[@nostalgia63]

Nice video. Philochrony is the theory that describes the nature of time and demonstrates its existence. Time is magnitive: objective, Imperceptible and measurable.

[@ninjaspion]

My god! Dude, you just made the best comparison I ever read!

[@MoonBillboardRileyReidMemes]

This video waited 9 years for me to see it

[@duhboss1]

I guessed 25 seconds. Michael also touches on this topic in one of the VSause videos. I can't remember exactly which though.

[@sayanchakraborty3720]

Great lesson !

[@stilljust-me2795]

2:05 I guessed 15...

[@IstasPumaNevada]

The title of the video spoiled the experiment for me. Interesting video, and also very interesting art style.

[@thecaveoawesomeness]

This was a very interesting video. first off because I really like David Eagleman, great author so if you like books on the brain give Incognito a try. It's crazy that by looking at or experiencing more information while doing something like that can increase the perceived time of the event.

[@Netbug009]

30 seconds - not bad!

[@dertythegrower]

@ 4:10 its a "tobacco water pipe" 18mm downstem used in the little art piece of the airplane :)

[@dominicwynter4805]

I guessed 25 seconds. Yay! I have good time perception.

[@GTAiMaster]

You always have a dream. Yes, sometimes when you don't remember anything from it, than it might seem so. :)

[@berni1602]

I don't think so, the mind works different when we're talking about dreams. Even, the time that you spend on a dream is bigger than the time that you actually dreamed.

[@yanchunchen3782]

Haha we guess it's less time coz we are sitting in front of the screen and watching the video! It's not us who're jumping by one foot or mimicking the dog bark :D

[@DiamondDoggie]

I made the tremendous mistake of watching this video while drunk. Now my roommates want to know why I was barking and slamming into walls at two in the morning.

[@JimBCameron]

As Blake wrote, 'Eternity in an hour'. :)

[@emanalmutawa8564]

amazing video and explanation!

[@MzZombie]

27 seconds... i'm actually proud of myself!

[@October_libra]

I guessed 15 seconds. So I underestimated. Ironically I feel as if I process things faster which means that time with technically feel slower to me. However I usually watch a video at 2.0 speed but for the sake of this experiment I set it to 1.5 perhaps that contributed to underestimating. Lol.

[@nigelmckee3058]

DONT READ THE COMMENTS BEFORE WATCHING! Managed to ruin it for myself... I used to have a 96 polo as a field car, i was in it with my brother when he took a corner too fast, headed towards a fence, so steered away from the turn - right towards a huge 2 tonne slab of concrete! The time between seeing the block and hitting it felt like 10 seconds! Was closer to one... She never drove again ='[

[@mooxim]

I'm wearing headphones. Maybe try this later.

[@MedEighty]

So the brain is a little like a very old computer, powered by a single core CPU. When it's busy writing onto its hard drive, it slows down and doesn't respond to interrupts like the clock pulse. That could explain why it's so hard to get out of bed in the morning. It takes the brain a long time to boot up after an overnight shutdown.

[@microtom243]

I said 9/10 seconds, am i going to die?

[@mateus_ledur]

Hey i just saw you. You were on the video!

[@GENCE.01]

Joke's on you, it didn't work on me because I hop on one foot and bark all the time.

[@lisasays6174]

Wow - wow - interesting.

[@Fred-RIKA]

I guessed 20 secs. Its so cute but also amazing that birds might value their time here long also, but we wouldn't. But a bird has its own preferences and experiences to go from. Cute birds

[@saumitrachakravarty]

I guessed 30 secs. And judging by the comments from others which I didn't notice before taking the test, it seems the experiment demonstrated in the video failed terribly!

[@MultiLXO]

very interesting

[@rae_diant]

I guessed 30. not too bad

[@meetmylaptop]

me to

[@curranneely9097]

As did I

[@ogepma]

Guessed 30 too!

[@animemangaluv13]

I said 20 seconds but OK :)

[@tamzeedashakira]

Same

[@themacocko6311]

Yeah, I said 10-15

[@jaimieritchie]

So if you want to live a long life, than do more exiting and new and different things.

[@ricochade]

You dream everynight, even if you don't remember it.

[@evawu8431]

omg awesome! now i can make my holiday seem longer :D

[@venkatchait007]

i thought the experiment was to see how far you would go :)

[@stephenkamenar]

Also, time flies when you're having fun. But entertainment is not related to information intake. That's probably some totally different effect, idk.

[@stephenkamenar]

Is this why when you wake up, if you didn't have a dream, it can feel like it didn't take any time?

[@8bit_pineapple]

I guessed 27 seconds,... but I am wearing a headset and did not follow the instructions, and I am not sure if I would have if it was on loud speaker.

[@Abeloen]

can i slow down time using this please answer

[@totemoorleiche]

so why do boring things seem to last forever?

[@oreka8699]

perfect

[@liamyoudontgettoknow8269]

2:05 I said 38 seconds... exactly 10 seconds off. Also, why did he say "twirl around", and then 'hop on one foot and bark like dog'?

[@scottseptember1992]

Everyone has dreams, but you just don't remember it some/most-times upon waking.

[@comexm258]

I paused the video to do the hop and accidently remembered where I left off,so when I sat back down and looked at the video I already knew how long :l but it felt like 33 seconds.

[@flwrbeat]

i guessed 25 seconds, i am shook

[@shortattentiospan]

Is this temporal awareness?

[@thuychibts]

The harder i study the longer the time pass

[@D34dlySpork]

Is that why studying feels like it takes forever? :P

[@Zwerggoldhamster]

Its nighty degrees in my room. Yeh, I aint getting up and jumping on one foot^^

[@TheaDragonSpirit]

I actually under estimated. Ha, nothing new. I always think I can do things faster than I can.

[@hightown999]

holy crap, listened to this while my computer froze and thought i'd be hacked by some absolute creep.

[@MrQwerty2524]

At first, i was actually hopping on one foot, when he asked me to bark i was like, fuck this, hes fucking with me! xD

[@Mad.E]

I thought it was half a minute, so 30 seconds.

[@jiberish001]

The exercise will fail in most people. Making them do a task that is normally seen as ridiculous or silly, will cause the person to disregard the finer details of said exercise, thus ruining the exercise.

[@GuyTheMasculine]

Fuck yeah, David Eagleman.

[@MrAmiiine1]

i'm the only one how didn't finish this video !!

[@nawedy]

So that's why half an hour studying feels like hours!

[@VioletAyame47]

I actually underestimated. I thought it as about 20s!

[@free-naturalist8912]

In other words, regardless of your perception through Time. You do experience Time.

[@suburiboy]

My cat is sitting at the table with me and she is very confused. by the hop hop bark bark sounds.

[@JungleJargon]

If you want to keep from getting old, take the ingredient resveratrol along with other supplements for your eyes, skin, mind and heart.

Everybody dreams, not everybody is able to remember all their dreams though

[@theuberband]

I actually guessed 26 seconds lol. Nice

[@vessygavrailova7419]

Then how about "time flies when you're having fun"?

[@waldemir5621]

you can spend hours playing a video game, its fun because stimulates your brain to release dopamine when you win and all. But it is a repetitive activity, is not something exactly new to you

[@JungleJargon]

If you want to know the truth, only your Maker is able to remake you again because no one else can.

[@bonchitogovindodas3333]

Planking dilates time for me

[@Kansyn]

I guessed 35 secs. So it was pretty close

[@thenorup]

I estimated 1 min, and I didn't follow the instructions... something is wrong here...

[@ProTroll69]

I guessed 25. What does that mean?

[@theonlychosenman]

what happens if i guess 26 because i actually did.

[@gimpdoctor8362]

i guessed 30 seconds. i am a legless dog though so it's cool?

[@DJzMax]

i guessed from 20 to 30 so not bad

[@sandwich117FTW]

lol did anyone else do the things he said? I did and my was really confused.

[@peteflanagan3528]

I said ten seconds and I feel a bit dumb.

[@LIES666]

20 seconds, hmm... so basically I'm the opposite so I should sit on my arse all day. Glad to see I'm doing the right thing.

[@styles7887]

I thought I was being trolled but I still hoped and barked like a dog, fun stuff, felt like a 1m 30s.

[@alexandrab.3390]

i guessed 20 seconds

[@Pip0nat3r]

26 seconds. I guess I'm just good.

[@Nightlose]

the title gave it away, i counted :S

[@BeastOfTraal]

30 seconds was my guess

[@crystallin6776]

I became a adult and retook the test, and I guessed, like, 25 seconds. Oh yeah, BTW, I didn't remember

[@gieterrr]

30 seconds, pretty close