TIME PERCEPTION
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(2) |
| ID | ◀ 3565 ▶ |
| Object type | Epistemology, ontology or semantics |
This is one of the most elusive issue in general, and in systemics in particular. J.J. GIBSON writes: “We should begin thinking of events as the primary realities and of time as an abstraction from them — a concept derived mainly from regular repeating events, such as the ticking of clocks. Events are perceived, but time is not” (1986, p. 100).
L.von BERTALANFFY states that: “Experienced time is not Newtonian. Far from flying uniformerly (aequilabiliter fluit, as NEWTON has it), it depends on physiological conditions. The so-called time memory of animals and man seems to be determined by a 'physiological clock'…
- “Experienced time seems to fly if it is filled with impressions, and creeps if we are in a state of tedium…
- “With increasing age, time appears to run faster…
- “Correspondingly, the rate of cicatrization of wounds is decreased proportional to age, the psychological as well as physiological phenomena obviously being connected with the slowing down of metabolic processes in senescence”
The subject was researched in depth by the French biologists P. LECOMTE du NOUY as early as 1936 and somewhat later by A. MISSENARD (1940) (see above).
It should be added that, just as our space perception is defined by our physiological characteristics, our perception of time is also related to it: we have no way to perceive too short changes, nor too long ones, while the perception scale of other animals (of very short life for example) could be quite different.