Judgement of time

Main article: Time perception

The specious present refers to the time duration wherein one's perceptions are considered to be in the present. The experienced present is said to be ‘specious’ in that, unlike the objective present, it is an interval and not a durationless instant. The term specious present was first introduced by the psychologist E.R. Clay, and later developed by William James.^[59]

[edit] Biopsychology

The brain's judgement of time is known to be a highly distributed system, including at least the cerebral cortex, cerebellum and basal ganglia as its components. One particular component, the suprachiasmatic nuclei, is responsible for the circadian (or daily) rhythm, while other cell clusters appear to be capable of shorter-range (ultradian) timekeeping.
Psychoactive drugs can impair the judgement of time. Stimulants can lead both humans and rats to overestimate time intervals,^[60][61] while depressants can have the opposite effect.^[62] The level of activity in the brain of neurotransmitters such as dopamine and norepinephrine may be the reason for this.^[63]
Mental chronometry is the use of response time in perceptual-motor tasks to infer the content, duration, and temporal sequencing of cognitive operations.

[edit] Alterations

In addition to psychoactive drugs, judgements of time can be altered by temporal illusions (like the kappa effect^[64] ), age,^[65] and hypnosis.^[66] The sense of time is impaired in some people with neurological diseases such as Parkinson's disease and attention deficit disorder.
Psychologists assert that time seems to go faster with age, but the literature on this age-related perception of time remains controversial.^[67] As an example, one day to an eleven-year-old person would be approximately 1/4,000 of their life, while one day to a 55-year-old would be approximately 1/20,000 of their life. According to such an interpretation, a day would appear much longer to a young child than to an adult, even though the measure of time is the same.^{[original research?]}