Does time really slow down during a frightening event?

Observers commonly report that time seems to have moved in slow motion during a life-threatening event. It is unknown whether this is a function of increased time resolution during the event, or instead an illusion of remembering an emotionally salient event. Using a hand-held device to measure spee...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPloS one Vol. 2; no. 12; p. e1295
Main Authors Stetson, Chess, Fiesta, Matthew P, Eagleman, David M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Public Library of Science 12.12.2007
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects
Alzheimer's disease
Cocaine
Fear
Free fall
Humans
Memory
Neurobiology
Neuroscience/Behavioral Neuroscience
Neuroscience/Cognitive Neuroscience
Neuroscience/Sensory Systems
Neurosciences
Parkinson's disease
Perception
Retrospective Studies
Saccades (Eye movements)
Schizophrenia
Temporal resolution
Time Factors
Visual perception
United States > US
Texas
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Summary:Observers commonly report that time seems to have moved in slow motion during a life-threatening event. It is unknown whether this is a function of increased time resolution during the event, or instead an illusion of remembering an emotionally salient event. Using a hand-held device to measure speed of visual perception, participants experienced free fall for 31 m before landing safely in a net. We found no evidence of increased temporal resolution, in apparent conflict with the fact that participants retrospectively estimated their own fall to last 36% longer than others' falls. The duration dilation during a frightening event, and the lack of concomitant increase in temporal resolution, indicate that subjective time is not a single entity that speeds or slows, but instead is composed of separable subcomponents. Our findings suggest that time-slowing is a function of recollection, not perception: a richer encoding of memory may cause a salient event to appear, retrospectively, as though it lasted longer.
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Conceived and designed the experiments: DE CS. Performed the experiments: DE CS. Analyzed the data: DE CS. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: CS MF. Wrote the paper: DE CS.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0001295