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Human density in different locations influences time estimation. In this article, we report three experiments investigating whether research in virtual reality (VR) environments would replicate this earlier finding. In our first experiment, 35 participants wore head-mounted VR displays and watched two videos showing a cityscape and a countryside. While watching each video, participants were asked to provide their perceptions of 30 seconds of time passage. Perceived time in the cityscape condition was longer than in the countryside condition. In our second experiment, 43 participants wore head-mounted VR displays and watched two videos showing a crowded and uncrowded Ikebukuro station. While watching these videos, participants were asked to provide their perceptions of 60 seconds of time passage. Perceived time in the crowded condition was longer relative to the uncrowded condition. In our third experiment, 21 participants wore head-mounted displays and watched two videos showing a crowded and uncrowded nature park. While watching the videos, participants were asked to provide their perceptions of 60 seconds of time passage. These repeated findings in VR environments of longer time perception in crowded versus uncrowded conditions were similar to data reported by who examined how location and human density affected subjective time in the real world. We discussed the implications of the VR tool in subjective time research and how people perceive and use VR environments in daily life.

Studies of subjective time have adopted different methods to understand different processes of time perception. Four sculptures, with implied movement ranked as 1.5-, 3.0-, 4.5-, and 6.0-point stimuli on the Body Movement Ranking Scale, were randomly presented to 42 university students untrained in visual arts and ballet. Participants were allowed to observe the images for any length of time (exploration time) and, immediately after each image was observed, recorded the duration as they perceived it. The results of temporal ratio (exploration time / time estimation) showed that exploration time of images also affected perception of time, i.e., the subjective time for sculptures representing implied movement were overestimated.

A systematic replication of Vitulli and Shepard's 1996 study showed that a change in response requirements (verbal estimation) from circling time intervals on a scoring sheet in the older study to writing subjective time estimates in the present study did not alter the robust effects of a delay in retrospective judgement. A complete 2×2×2 factorial analysis of variance showed main effects for rate (fast versus slow) of stimulus (random digits, 1–5) presentation and delay of estimate (immediate versus remote), yet there were no interactions among rate, delay, or sex. The interpolation of “filler tasks” between the end of the target interval and subjective estimate of the duration of the target interval significantly increased perceived time compared to estimates made immediately after the target interval.

Time seems to accelerate with increasing age. This subjective acceleration or compression may be due to the operation of a linear or a square-root function that relates present age to past age. A subjective magnitude-estimation technique was applied in a questionnaire given to 282 university students to determine which function best fitted the data. The results did not support the hypothesis that subjective time is estimated by either linear or square-root functions. Instead, the results indicate that subjective time is estimated with respect to a stable constant independent of age. These results support the notion that the purely subjective perception of time may serve as a measure of psychological temporal processes that remain stable with age. A linear function of age was, however, significantly related to error in the estimation of test-duration.

In dating past events, one sometimes recalls inaccurate dates and tends to estimate recent events too remotely and remote events too recently (telescoping). On the other hand, even when one knows the exact dates of events, subjective time could be elastic and often different from objective time. This Feeling of Time Discrepancy between objective and subjective elapsed times was examined with two autobiographical events. Results showed that (1) subjects reported a discrepancy even if the exact dates of events were known and (2) the discrepancy for entrance into university was higher than that for graduation from high school, even when they happened at almost same time. The results are discussed in terms of “location” and “distance” theories, Kemp's 1999 associative model of dating, and Conway's 2000 self-memory system. Autobiographical memory may be organized in terms of present self-concept with our past fitted to the present self-concept. However, if autobiographical memory changes greatly, we cannot share autobiographical memory with other people. We may be adapted to the present life by making only a sense of the subjective elapsed time of each event change with the accurate time information of the autobiographical facts held.

Summary.-An observation made 160 years ago by Jacob Abbott (1803-1879), subsequently reinforced and publicized by Robert Southey (1774-1843), that half the duration of human life seems to be passed within its fist 15 to 20 yem, is shown to agree with Lemlich's quantitative hypothesis of subjective aging. In the pages of this journal, R. Lernlich (1975) developed a quantitative theoretical model for the subjective acceleration of time with aging. It was based on the hypothesis that the subjective duration of an interval of real time is inversely proportional to total subjective time, rather than (as had been suggested more than once) to total real time. Lemlich's hypothesis leads, among other equations, to the following relation: = s/sD 8 where R is the total real time and S is the total subjective time; and at death R = R, and S =S,. Thus at age 40, a person who has an expectancy of 30 years remaining has already lived or 76% of his subjective expected total life. Lernlich tested his hypothesis by polling 31 male undergraduates and 21 older, university-employed men and women about how much faster or slower time seemed to be passing for them now compared to when they were (a) one-half and (b) one-quarter of their present ages. The results he obtained generally agreed with the predictions from his theory. Pertinent to this topic is the following passage, which I came upon by chance recently, from The Doctor, Gc., published anonymously in 1837 lJ.nndon: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman] but known to have been written by Robert Southey (1774-1843), the Poet Laureate of England at that time. The passage in question occurs in Volume IV, pp. 329-330 and is as follows: "It is another saying of the Laureate's [i.e., Southey], according to On-dit, that 'live as long as you may, the first twenty years are the longest half of your life.' They appear so while they are passing; they seem to have been so when we look back on them; and they take up more room in our memory than all the years that succeed them.

Relationships among 48 Ss' ages and IQs and their rates of subjective times (RST) were examined. A strong positive correlation was obtained between age and RST. In general the older the man, the faster was his RST. The strength of this relationship did depend, however, upon the interval of time S was required to estimate for the determination of his RST. In general, the shorter the interval the stronger was the relationship. No relationship was found between IQ and RST.

The hypothesis that women experience heightened sensitivity and responsivity premenstrually was tested by asking 10 women to produce short time intervals at four phases of the menstrual cycle. 10 men were assigned to “pseudo-cycles” and tested as a control. The test was based on the assumption that a greater sensitivity to stimuli is reflected in a “slowing down” of subjective time. The women produced the shortest time intervals three to four days before menses, confirming the hypothesis.

A quantitative theoretical model for the subjective acceleration of time with aging is presented. It is based on a new hypothesis, namely, that the subjective duration of an interval of real time decreases in mathematical proportion to total subjective time (rather than total real time). This gives a differential equation, the variables of which are separated and integrated to yield the result that the subjective duration of an interval of real time varies inversely with the square root of the total real time (age). This result was tested by polling college students and older adults as to their recollections regarding the relative apparent rate of the passage of time at various ages. Generally good agreement was obtained between the results of the poll and the results predicted by the theory.

Techniques for estimation of magnitude were used in a questionnaire given to 100 university students to test the hypothesis that the subjective duration of an interval of actual time decreases in proportion to total subjective time rather than total chronological age. The results supported the subjective time hypothesis for retrospective reports of perceived duration of a year at both one-half and one-quarter of the subject's present age. In both cases the subjective time hypothesis provided a better fit to the data than the chronological age model. The hypothesis of the subjective time model that subjective life-span is equal to the square root of the statistically expected life-span was also tested but was not confirmed.

A method was developed for measuring rate of subjective time ( RST). Subjective time ( T) was recorded in subjects making a series of contiguous estimations of a standard interval of time. The results showed that T generally increased as a linear function of real time ( t). RST was measured by describing T as a linear function of t and by differentiating that function in respect to t. Individual differences in RST were large and stable within a test session. The differences were reliable from one session to the next. Within the range studied (1 to 10 min.) the duration of the standard interval had no systematic effect upon RSTs. And, RSTs were related in the appropriate direction to traditional measures of time perception. It was concluded that the RST is a useful measure for research on time perception.

During a period of 23 days, 51 students reported on their emotional reaction to an examination taking place at the end of the period; a variant of the method of magnitude estimation was used for this purpose. Scale values of elapsed time were also obtained. The results showed that emotional involvement increased as subjective time before the examination decreased. The process could be describd by a simple exponential function.

The present paper gives some evidence that differences in subjective time acceleration with aging are correlated with differences in the extent to which time is structured for the individual, as opposed to free time. Lemlich's 1975 hypothesis relating this speeding up of time to the subjective duration of the time interval was only partially supported by the evidence. Subjective change perceptions of happiness were not correlated significantly with this phenomenon of time perception.

Subjective time estimation was hypothesized as correlated with the number of discrete events one discerns per interval and one's attentiveness, interest in the experience, and efficiency. It was predicted that one who recognizes many discrete events per interval and rates high on these personality traits tends to underestimate time. For personality attributes, tapped by questionnaire, high scores denote an individual who shows the predicted characteristics of underestimaters. Estimations were made of a 3-min. tone of 191 Hz by 40 college men. Pearson correlation between questionnaire scores and time estimates was —.30. All 8 subjects with scores below 100 overestimated.