A recent study by van Wassenhove and colleagues is beginning to shed some light on this problem. This group used a simple experimental set up to measure the “subjective” experience of time. They found that people accurately judge whether a dot appears on the screen for shorter, longer or the same amount of time as another dot. However, when the dot increases in size so as to appear to be moving toward the individual — i.e. the dot is “looming” — something strange happens. People overestimate the time that the dot lasted on the screen.  This overestimation does not happen when the dot seems to move away.  Thus, the overestimation is not simply a function of motion. Van Wassenhove and colleagues conducted this experiment during functional magnetic resonance imaging, which enabled them to examine how the brain reacted differently to looming and receding.  

staff:

Name Gary’s Real Life
First post December 2008
Location ???

Gary likes taking photos, wearing suits, and lives a rich and fulfilling life. Professionally, he’s a part-time imaginary friend (though he often wonders what it’d be like to be a suit maker). Not much is known about Gary’s background, other than that his closest companion is an art director from Sydney, Australia named Josh Beggs. Josh is the creative director of an entertainment magazine, has a dog named Baxter, and is a talented illustrator.

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(via Make Magazine)

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10x10 - Educate Girls. Change the World 

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