Have you ever wondered why time seemed to pass so slowly when you were a child but sped faster once you hit adulthood?
Research suggests a person’s perception of how much time has passed between two points and how well memories are recorded onto an individual’s brain are partially dependent on the amount of new experiences that person has during any given period of time. And children typically have more new experiences than adults because they are often experiencing the world for the first time.
Scientists are still not in complete agreement on the matter of time perception, as it continues to be a rather unexplored area of research.
But Duke University Psychology Professor Warren Meck has said by the time humans are in their 60s and 70s, and time is beginning to run out, experiences become more important, time slows, and, once again, these individuals remember more details.
BBC News journalist Matt Danzico, and the writer of this TED-Ed Lesson, engaged in a new activity each day throughout 2011 in an effort to slow his perception of his year. The Time Hack was a year-long experiment that saw Danzico attempt to slow his year through fighting a boxer, taking trapeze lessons, and spending time in a sensory deprivation tank – to name a few. Danzico writes that he believes the year-long pursuit forced him to perceive his year as having lasted an extra 14 hours, 43 minutes and 29 over the course of 365 days. His final analysis can be found here.

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