Psychology Of Time: Basic And Applied Issues

Abstract

Introduction Research on the psychology of time has a long history but a short memory, especially as it involves applied issues. In this chapter, we review some basic research. Then we review some areas of application and provide some suggestions to extend them. Psychology emerged from philosophy and medicine in the late 1800s, and the study of time was an important focus of research (Nichols, 1891; Vierordt, 1868). The preeminent figure in U.S. psychology, William James, made many interesting comments in his classic work, The Principles of Psychology (1890). In his chapter “Perception of Time,” he distinguished between time in passing and time in retrospect (Block, 1994). This turned out to be a prescient distinction. Modern researchers also find large effects, which are now attributed to the differences between so-called prospective and retrospective duration judgment paradigms. In the prospective paradigm, a person is aware that timing is relevant to a task, either by being instructed to do so or because a previous time estimate was requested. In the retrospective paradigm, a person is not aware in advance that a time estimate will later be requested. In these two situations, people regard time in different ways.

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Publication Title

The Cambridge Handbook of Applied Perception Research

Number of Pages

284-296

Document Type

Article; Book Chapter

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511973017.019

Socpus ID

84954290183 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84954290183

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