Experiential Chronoception

In the worlds of neuroscience and psychology, “chronoception” refers to an individual’s subjective perception of time.

This meaningfully contrasts with objective measures of time, as rather than referring to the time it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun, or the amount of time it takes for radioactive elements to decay, this refers to the perceived duration of (for instance) a meeting or class, or how long a year of life seemed to last, compared to the passage of previous years.

There are all sorts of theories as to what influences our perception of time, including our parsing of environmental and internal data, which can be influenced by exposure to novelty (traveling to a new country, for instance), alongside measures related to our “presence,” in the sense that we’re consciously aware of what’s happening in the moment, as opposed to ruminating about the past or making forecasts about (and planning for) the future.