Members in the Media
From: Examiner

Goal-oriented activity speeds perception of time

Examiner:

Scientists Philip Gable and Bryan Pool of the University of Alabama recently decided to investigate the old saying “time flies when you are having fun”. Although they suspected there was some truth to the concept, they hypothesized that this only held true when you were engaged in ‘approach motivation’ or the desire to achieve a goal.

One of the experiments consisted of showing participants picture of positive images and recording their perception of the how long they viewed the image. Images consisted of neutral, pleasant and goal-oriented images (such as enticing dessert). As suspected, the studies confirmed that when participants viewed positive approach motivation or goal-oriented images they perceived time as passing quickly, reports Science Daily.

Read the whole story: Examiner

More of our Members in the Media >


APS regularly opens certain online articles for discussion on our website. Effective February 2021, you must be a logged-in APS member to post comments. By posting a comment, you agree to our Community Guidelines and the display of your profile information, including your name and affiliation. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations present in article comments are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of APS or the article’s author. For more information, please see our Community Guidelines.

Please login with your APS account to comment.