/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.15246452]

brainlet here, I have a neurology-related question:
Why do you "feel" time in a different way when you get older, and is there a way to go back to that childlike intuition?
We know our perception of time changes when we get older, you feel like time moves faster and your brain cannot appreciate things the way you used to when you were a child, I'm not talking exactly about neuroplasticity although, of course, both things are probably related
I know it may sound too poetic for a science board but I want to be able to see the world the way I used to when I was a child.
I know as an adult you have more long-term goals and you don't focus that much on the present, but besides that, I think there is some biological explanation as to why the world and time "feel" different when you get older

any good papers or opinions on the subject?

[Anonymous No.15247039]

Let’s say you have two values: 1/2 and 1/30. Clearly the 1/30 is smaller right? This comparison demonstrates why you feel time moves so fast when you get older - each period of time is smaller relative to your overall life. At least, that’s a very simplified answer.

[Anonymous No.15247041]

>>15247039
For more reading, I suggest you look into “temporal cognition,” where researchers study how time is processed from within. The first result of google shows a book called “Temporal Cognition: Its Development, Neurocognitive Basis, Relationships to Other Cognitive Domains, and Uniquely Human Aspects” and while I haven’t read it personally, it does seem to reflect my general research and your question.

[Anonymous No.15247069]

>>15247041
thanks, will read this

[Anonymous No.15249255]

>>15247039
Possibly, but I think it has more to do with new experiences. When you are younger you have more new experiences. Do new things every year and you will feel like time is going slower as you will remember that x experience was in x year and so on. When people get stuck in a routine like most adults, time flies because the same experience keeps repeating so it subconsciously becomes a blur.

[Anonymous No.15249545]

>>15249255
this. everything is novel as a child. what would gain if, as an adult, you immersed yourself in novelty nonstop?

[Anonymous No.15249925]

>>15249255
>>15249545
so it has to do with memory

[Cult of Passion No.15249941]

Youre spending too much time "enjoying" and not enough to "survivng trials and tribulations".

t.Developmental Psychologist and Phenomenologist

...literally the study of perception (yes and time) and cognitive developement (changes to perceptions) from experience.

[Anonymous No.15250404]

The pinch method is a pottery method performed by repeatedly pinching a soft-plastic clay mass in a sequence, eventually displacing the material into a desired formal configuration.

>Bowls can be made by inserting one's thumb intro the mass, then repeatedly pinching it with one hand while rotating it with the other until a semi-spherical bowl is formed.

At the beginning stages of this growth process, the clay walls are very thick and the capacity of the bowl miniscule as its volume is about the size of the creator's thumb. If one were to attempt filling this bowl with a steady drip of water, it would take only a few moments before it reaches its capacity and overflows.

As the artist continues pinching and material is further displaced, the walls get thinner, the object gets larger, and the volume of the bowl expands despite no material being added.

>It takes longer for the drips of water to fill up the bowl.

>You are the bowl and the water is time.

[Anonymous No.15250449]

This question isn't about neurology. Actually it's about special relativity. Each observer is experiencing time dilation in his frame of reference. This means the clocks of all other frames of reference moving relative to you are seemingly ticking faster. As an adult you are moving much more than a child. For example commuting to work every day. You are literally losing time and your employer doesn't compensate you for this.

[Anonymous No.15250486]

>>15246452
The brain is a pattern recognition machine that boils down to shorthand. When you're young, you've not learned as many patterns, so every experience is new, and the "long hand" version gets stored in memory, making it seem as though time moves more slowly. As you grow older, recognized patterns stand in for repetitious memories, thus less details are stored and time seems to move faster.

A six year old will be able to tell you exactly how they started brushing their teeth in the morning and in what order, while an adult is lucky to remember whether or not they brushed their teeth at all. Rote memorization.

The only way to bypass this effect without damaging the brain or disabling access to large sections of it with drugs is to constantly go out and experience new things, though even that eventually hits a hedonistic treadmill effect.

[Anonymous No.15252043]

>>15250404
that's terrifying

[Anonymous No.15252332]

i think it's just about experiences, since i became a neet and do nothing all day time moves very quickly