After a great scare, some people say that everything happened in slow motion. Is it because they have actually perceived more moments, like an accelerated camera, or because their memory then reconstructs a longer duration?
In a study published in 2007, volunteers performed a framed fall to a net, with a device measuring the temporal resolution of their visual perception. The researchers found no corresponding improvement, while the participants felt that their own fall lasted longer.
The authors suggest that memory contributes to this subjective dilation. The result is this protocol; it does not solve all the experiences of time. But it separates two easily confused ideas: feeling that an event has lasted a long time and actually treating the outside world as a series of more numerous images as it happened.
What we know
Result of a protocol, retrospective interpretation; not physical slowing down of time. Two propositions on temporal perception combined.
To go to the source
References consulted on September 21, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
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