Visual impressions can distort the sense of time

American scientists from George Mason University in Virginia have discovered a connection between the subjective perception of time and what people see. The study was published in the scientific journal Nature Human Behavior (NHB).

The team conducted two experiments in which participants viewed various images and rated them as "short" or "long" based on their impressions. At the same time, the display time of each frame randomly varied in the range from 0.3 to 0.9 seconds.

The results of both tests showed that the size and randomness of the scene have a significant but opposite effect on the perceived duration. Large-scale paintings invariably made the volunteers consider them longer, and the saturation of messy details caused a feeling of brevity.

The scientists also conducted a third trial in which the images differed in their memorability. It turned out that the pictures embedded in the memory increase the feeling of time duration.

The conclusions of the experts were confirmed by modeling using a neural network. According to the calculations of the algorithms, the brain processes memorable images faster.

According to the researchers, their discovery showed the existence of a "visual" perception of time in human consciousness. It allows the brain to collect more information when needed.