Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-xtgtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T22:32:14.442Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

14 - Time Perception from Seconds to Lifetimes: How Perceived Time Affects Adult Development

from Part II - Mechanisms of Cognitive Aging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2020

Ayanna K. Thomas
Affiliation:
Tufts University, Massachusetts
Angela Gutchess
Affiliation:
Brandeis University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

This chapter considers ways that perceived time – both at the level of seconds and lifetimes – may influence adult development. Research suggests that age-related impairments in divided attention contribute to older adults’ underestimation of short-term duration judgments. A separate literature suggests that perceived constraints on future time lead to the prioritization of emotionally meaningful goals. We consider ways that these two research streams may inform one another. Findings about duration judgments may help to explain age-related time acceleration that affects perceptions of the future. Findings about motivational changes associated with perceived constraints on time may influence attention in ways that reduce accuracy of duration judgments. We urge joint consideration of these literatures in hypothesis generation about developmental trajectories of cognitive processing, motivation, and emotional well-being.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Aging
A Life Course Perspective
, pp. 254 - 272
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Albert, S. (1977). Temporal comparison theory. Psychological Review, 84, 485503. doi: 10.1037/0033-295X.84.6.485Google Scholar
Balci, F., Meck, W. H., Moore, H., & Brunner, D. (2009). Timing deficits in aging and neuropathology. In Bizon, J. L. & Woods, A. (Eds.), Animal models of human cognitive aging (pp. 161201). New York: Humana Press.Google Scholar
Baltes, P. B., Lindenberger, U., & Staudinger, U. M. (2006). Life span theory in developmental psychology. In Lerner, R. M. & Damon, W. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Theoretical models of human development (pp. 569664). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc.Google Scholar
Barber, S. J., Opitz, P. C., Martins, B., Sakaki, M., & Mather, M. (2016). Thinking about a limited future enhances the positivity of younger and older adults’ recall: Support for socioemotional selectivity theory. Memory and Cognition, 44, 869882. doi: 10.3758/s13421-016-0612-0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baudouin, A., Vanneste, S., Isingrini, M., & Pouthas, V. (2006a). Differential involvement of internal clock and working memory in the production and reproduction of duration: A study on older adults. Acta Psychologica, 121, 285296. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2005.07.004Google Scholar
Baudouin, A., Vanneste, S., Pouthas, V., & Isingrini, M. (2006b). Age-related changes in duration reproduction: Involvement of working memory processes. Brain and Cognition, 62, 1723. doi: 10.1016/j.bandc.2006.03.003Google Scholar
Bherer, L., Desjardins, S., & Fortin, C. (2007). Age-related differences in timing with breaks. Psychology and Aging, 22, 398403. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.22.2.398CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bisiacchi, P. S., & Cona, G. (2016). Time perception and aging. In Pachana, N. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of geropsychology. Singapore: Springer.Google Scholar
Block, R. A., & Gruber, R. P. (2014). Time perception, attention, and memory: A selective review. Acta Psychologica, 149, 129133. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2013.11.003Google Scholar
Block, R. A., Zakay, D., & Hancock, P. A. (1998). Human aging and duration judgments: A meta-analytic review. Psychology and Aging, 13, 584596. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.13.4.584Google Scholar
Bluck, S., & Liao, H.-W. (2013). I was therefore I am: Creating self-continuity through remembering our personal past. International Journal of Reminiscence and Life Review, 1, 712. http://journals.radford.edu/index.php/IJRLR/article/view/151Google Scholar
Brandtstädter, J., & Greve, W. (1994). The aging self: Stabilizing and protective processes. Developmental Review, 14, 5280. doi: 10.1006/drev.1994.1003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carrasco, C. M., Guillem, J. M., & Redolat, R. (2000). Estimation of short temporal intervals in Alzheimer’s disease. Experimental Aging Research, 26, 139151. doi: 10.1080/036107300243605Google Scholar
Carstensen, L. L. (1992). Social and emotional patterns in adulthood: Support for socioemotional selectivity theory. Psychology and Aging, 7, 331338. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.7.3.331Google Scholar
Carstensen, L. L. (2006). The influence of a sense of time on human development. Science, 312, 19131915. doi: 10.1126/science.1127488Google Scholar
Carstensen, L. L., & Fredrickson, B. F. (1998). Socioemotional selectivity in healthy older people and younger people living with the human immunodeficiency virus: The centrality of emotion when the future is constrained. Health Psychology, 17, 110. doi: 10.1037/0278-6133.17.6.494Google Scholar
Carstensen, L. L., Isaacowitz, D. M., & Charles, S. T. (1999). Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity. American Psychologist, 54, 165181. doi: 10.1037//0003-066x.54.3.165CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carstensen, L. L., Turan, B., Scheibe, S., et al. (2011). Emotional experience improves with age: Evidence based on over 10 years of experience sampling. Psychology and Aging, 26, 2133. doi: 10.1037/a0021285Google Scholar
Chu, Q., Grühn, D., & Holland, A. (2018). Before I die: The impact of time perspective and age on bucket list goals. GeroPsych: The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry, 31, 151162. doi: 10.1024/1662-9647/a000190CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. D., McClure, S. M., & Yu, A. J. (2007). Should I stay or should I go? How the human brain manages the trade-off between exploitation and exploration. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Science, 362, 933942. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2007.2098CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conway, M. A., Singer, J. A., & Tagini, A. (2004). The self and autobiographical memory: Correspondence and coherence. Social Cognition, 22, 491529. doi: 10.1521/soco.22.5.491.50768CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craik, F. I., & Hay, J. F. (1999). Aging and judgments of duration: Effects of task complexity and method of estimation. Perception and Psychophysics, 61, 549560. doi: 10.3758/BF03211972Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). The masterminds series. Finding flow: The psychology of engagement with everyday life. New York: Basic.Google Scholar
Droit-Volet, S., Trahanias, P., & Maniadakis, M. (2017). Passage of time judgments in everyday life are not related to duration judgments except for long durations of several minutes. Acta Psychologica, 173, 116–114. doi: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.12.010Google Scholar
English, T., & Carstensen, L. L. (2014). Selective narrowing of social networks across adulthood is associated with improved emotional experience in daily life. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 38, 195202. doi: 10.1177/0165025413515404Google Scholar
Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Ersner-Hershfield, H., Mikels, J. A., Sullivan, S. J., & Carstensen, L. L. (2008). Poignancy: Mixed emotional experience in the face of meaningful endings. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 158167. doi: 10.1177/0165025413515404Google Scholar
Fredrickson, B. L. (1995). Socioemotional behavior at the end of college year. Journal of Social and Personal Behavior, 12, 261276. doi: 10.1177/0265407595122007Google Scholar
Fredrickson, B. L., & Carstensen, L. L. (1990). Choosing social partners: How old age and anticipated endings make people more selective. Psychology and Aging, 5, 335347. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.5.3.335Google Scholar
Fung, H. H., & Carstensen, L. L. (2006). Goals change when life’s fragility is primed: Lessons learned from older adults, the September 11 attacks and SARS. Social Cognition, 24, 248278. doi: 10.1521/soco.2006.24.3.248CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gabrian, M., Dutt, A. J., & Wahl, H.-W. (2017). Subjective time perceptions and aging well: A review of concepts and empirical research. Gerontology, 63, 350358. doi: 10.1159/000470906CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Giasson, H., Liao, H.-W., & Carstensen, L. L. (2018). Counting down while time flies: Implications of age-related time acceleration for goal pursuit across adulthood. Current Opinion in Psychology, 26, 8589. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2018.07.001Google Scholar
Gibbon, J., Church, R. M., & Meck, W. H. (1984). Scalar timing in memory. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 423, 5277. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1984.tb23417.xCrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grondin, S. (2010). Timing and time perception: A review of recent behavioral and neuroscience findings and theoretical directions. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 72, 561582. doi: 10.3758/APP.72.3.561Google Scholar
Grühn, D., Sharifian, N., & Chu, Q. (2016). The limits of a limited future time perspective in explaining age differences in emotional functioning. Psychology and Aging, 31, 583593. doi: 10.1037/pag0000060Google Scholar
Habermas, T., & Köber, C. (2015). Autobiographical reasoning in life narratives buffers the effect of biographical disruptions on the sense of self-continuity. Memory, 23, 664674. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2014.920885Google Scholar
Hicks, J. A., Trent, J., Davis, W. E., & King, L. A. (2012). Positive affect, meaning in life, and future time perspective: An application of socioemotional selectivity theory. Psychology and Aging, 27(1), 181189. doi: 10.1037/a0023965Google Scholar
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Hommelhoff, S., Müller, T., & Scheibe, S. (2018). Experimental evidence for the influence of occupational future time perspective on social preferences during lunch breaks. Work, Aging and Retirement, 4(4), 367380. doi: 10.1093/workar/wax022Google Scholar
John, D., & Lang, F. L. (2015). Subjective acceleration of time experience in everyday life across adulthood. Developmental Psychology, 51, 18241839. doi: 10.1037/dev0000059Google Scholar
Ju, I., Bluck, S., & Liao, H.-W. (2018). Future time perspective moderates consumer responses to nostalgic advertising. GeroPsych: The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry, 31, 137150. doi: 10.1024/1662-9647/a000193Google Scholar
Kan, I. P., Garrison, S., Drummey, A. B., Emmert, B. E., Jr., Rogers, L. L. (2018). The roles of chronological age and time perspective in memory positivity. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 25, 598612. doi: 10.1080/13825585.2017.1356262Google Scholar
Kennedy, Q., Mather, M., & Carstensen, L. L. (2004). The role of motivation in the age-related positivity effect in autobiographical memory. Psychological Science, 15, 208214. doi: 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.01503011.xGoogle Scholar
Klein, S. (2013). The sense of diachronic personal identity. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 12, 791811. doi: 10.1007/s11097-012-9285-8Google Scholar
Köber, C., & Habermas, T. (2017). How stable is the personal past? Stability of most important autobiographical memories and life narratives across eight years in a life span sample. Personality Processes and Individual Differences, 113, 608626. doi: 10.1037/pspp0000145Google Scholar
Li, K. Z. H., Lindenberger, U., Freund, A. M., & Baltes, P. B. (2001). Walking while memorizing: Age-related differences in compensatory behavior. Psychological Science, 12, 230237. doi: 10.1111/1467-9280.00341Google Scholar
Liao, H.-W., & Carstensen, L. L. (2018). Future time perspective: Time horizons and beyond. GeroPsych: The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry, 31, 163167. doi: 10.1024/1662-9647/a000194Google Scholar
Löckenhoff, C. E. (2011). Age, time, and decision making: From processing speed to global time horizons. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1235, 4456. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06209.xGoogle Scholar
Löckenhoff, C. E., & Rutt, J. L. (2017). Age differences in self-continuity: Converging evidence and directions for future research. Gerontologist, 57, 396408. doi: 10.1093/geront/gnx010Google Scholar
Lu, M., Li, A. Y., Fung, H. H., Rothermund, K., & Lang, F. R. (2018). Different future time perspectives interplay in predicting life satisfaction. GeroPsych: The Journal of Gerontopsychology and Geriatric Psychiatry, 31, 103113. doi: 10.1024/1662-9647/a000192CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lustig, C. (2003). Grandfather’s clock: Attention and interval timing in older adults. In Meck, W. H. (Ed.), Functional and neural mechanisms of internal timing (pp. 261293). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.Google Scholar
Lustig, C., & Meck, W. H. (2001). Paying attention to time as one gets older. Psychological Science, 12, 478484. doi: 10.1111/1467-9280.00389Google Scholar
Mather, M., Canli, T., English, T., et al. (2004). Amygdala responses to emotionally valenced stimuli in older and younger adults. Psychological Science, 15, 259263. doi: 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00662.xGoogle Scholar
McAdams, D. P. (2013). The psychological self as actor, agent, and author. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8, 272295. doi: 10.1177/1745691612464657Google Scholar
McAuley, J. D., Jones, M. R., Holub, S., Johnston, H. M., & Miller, N. S. (2006). The time of our lives: Life span development of timing and event tracking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 135, 348367. doi: 10.1037/0096-3445.135.3.348Google Scholar
McAuley, J. D., Miller, J. P., Wang, M., & Pang, K. C. H. (2010). Dividing time: Concurrent timing of auditory and visual events by young and elderly adults. Experimental Aging Research, 36, 306324. doi: 10.1080/0361073X.2010.484744CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLean, K. C. (2008). Stories of the young and the old: Personal continuity and narrative identity. Developmental Psychology, 44, 254264. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.44.1.254Google Scholar
Meck, H. M. (Ed.) (2005). Neuropsychology of timing and time perceptions [Special issue]. Brain and Cognition, 28.Google Scholar
Meck, H. M., & Ivry, R. B. (Eds.) (2016). Time in perception and action [Special issue]. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 8.Google Scholar
Neider, M. B., Gaspar, J. G., McCarley, J. S., et al. (2011). Walking and talking: Dual-task effects on street crossing behavior in older adults. Psychology and Aging, 26, 260268. doi: 10.1037/a0021566Google Scholar
Perbal, S., Droit-Volet, S., Isingrini, M., & Pouthas, V. (2002). Relationships between age-related changes in time estimation and age-related changes in processing speed, attention, and memory. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 9, 201216. doi: 10.1076/anec.9.3.201.9609Google Scholar
Pfeffer, J., & DeVoe, S. E. (2012). The economic evaluation of time: Organizational causes and individual consequences. Research in Organizational Behavior, 32, 4762. doi: 10.1016/j.riob.2012.11.001Google Scholar
Pöppel, E. (1997). A hierarchical model of temporal perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 1, 5661. doi: 10.1016/S1364-6613(97)01008-5Google Scholar
Pouthas, V., & Perbal, S. (2004). Time perception depends on accurate clock mechanisms as well as unimpaired attention and memory processes. Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis, 64, 367385. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15283479Google Scholar
Prebble, S. C., Addis, D. R., & Tippett, L. J. (2013). Autobiographical memory and sense of self. Psychological Bulletin, 139, 815840. doi: 10.1037/a0030146Google Scholar
Reed, A. E., & Carstensen, L. L. (2012). The theory behind the age-related positivity effect. Frontiers in Psychology, 3, p. 339. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00339Google Scholar
Reed, A. E., Chan, L., & Mikels, J. A. (2014). Meta-analysis of the age-related positivity effect: Age differences in preferences for positive over negative information. Psychology and Aging, 29, 115. doi: 10.1037/a0035194CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Samanez-Larkin, G. R., & Carstensen, L. L. (2011). Socioemotional functioning and the aging brain. In Decety, J. & Cacioppo, J. T. (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of social neuroscience (pp. 507521). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Samanez-Larkin, G. R., Robertson, E. R., Mikels, J. A., Carstensen, L. L., & Gotlib, I. H. (2014). Selective attention to emotion in the aging brain. Motivation Science, 1(S), 4963. doi: 10.1037/a0016952CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shipp, A. J., Edwards, J. R., & Lambert, L. S. (2009). Conceptualization and measurement of temporal focus: The subjective experience of the past, present, and future. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 110, 122. doi: 10.1016/j.obhdp.2009.05.001Google Scholar
Sims, T., Hogan, C. L., & Carstensen, L. L. (2015). Selectivity as an emotion regulation strategy: Lessons from older adults. Current Opinion in Psychology, 3, 8084. doi: 10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.02.012Google Scholar
Stahl, S. T., & Patrick, J. H. (2011). Adults’ future time perspective predicts engagement in physical activity. Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 67, 413416. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbr118Google Scholar
Strough, J., Bruine, de Bruin, W., Parker, A. M., et al. (2016). Hour glass half-full or half-empty? Future time perspective and preoccupation with negative events across the life span. Psychology and Aging, 31, 558573. doi: 10.1037/pag0000097Google Scholar
Vanneste, S., & Pouthas, V. (1999). Timing in aging: The role of attention. Experimental Aging Research, 25, 4967. doi: 10.1080/036107399244138Google Scholar
Zakay, D., & Block, R. A. (1995). An attentional-gate model of prospective time estimation. In Richelle, M., De Keyser, V., d’Ydewalle, G., & Vandierendonck, A. (Eds.), Time and the dynamic control of behavior (pp. 167178). Liège, Belgium: University of Liège.Google Scholar
Zakay, D., & Block, R. A. (2004). Prospective and retrospective duration judgments: An executive-control perspective. Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis, 64, 319328. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15283475Google Scholar
Zimbardo, P. G., & Boyd, J. N. (1999). Putting time in perspective: A valid, reliable individual-differences metric. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 12711288. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1271Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×