Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception – Brain Science for Retraining, Managing, and Planning Your Future

Most interesting and explains much that we've all felt but wonder about daily. And what if C. S. Lewis is right, and I think he is, that our feelings about the strangeness of time indicate that, unlike fish who presumably don't think of themselves as wet, that we are not creatures created to live in time at all.

I love time and time perception, heck, I wrote a doctoral thesis that included time perception. That said, this book turned out to be a bit mundane and full of anecdotes and not enough data or science for my taste. Maybe I made the mistake in not vetting what the author and the book was about enough so that's on me, so that's why I'm not rating it at two stars and four stars, one ding because it does feel a bit false advertising to claim to unlock the mysteries of time perception and offer anecdotes and pop science instead. Two parts were especially tiring to get through, the one part that went through a series of hypotheses about why as we age time seems to go by faster, whose conclusion was so convoluted I barely remember it, and the other part about "hacks" one could do to make time slow down, which seemed wholly impractical and equally complex, like a series of rules to remember. I wasn't in the least interested in hacks for my life, I was much more interested in state-of-the-art theories about time perception and more science, more hypotheses based on physics and biology or neuroscience.

I found this book really informative on the elusive topic of time perception. I read the reviews of the book before actually reading it, and I found the narratives that got so many complaints quite helpful. The title of the book makes it clear that it’s not overly scientific. For me, the narratives made the complexity of this topic much more approachable. I find it fascinating how our thoughts and emotions impact our perception of time. Borders on pop psychology, but informative enough to enable anyone manipulate time to their advantage in themselves or others in many contexts. Just enough information.

Claudia Hammond notes that the word 'time' is used more frequently than any other noun in the English language. The concept of time is central to how we live in Western culture today, and "Time Warped" is a look at how we perceive time and at the impact it has on our lives. Hammond looks at the role of the brain in time perception, noting effects such as the perceived slowing of time during episodes of fear or illness. She notes the differences in how people organize time in their mind--some people view the months of the year in circular fashion as with a clock, while others view them in the form of a line; some see themselves as moving through time, while others see time as moving toward them. It is frequently observed that time seems to speed up as one gets older--the author examines this phenomenon and why most people can recall their lives from ages 15 to 25 more vividly than they can any other period. Time perception can also be skewed by vacations and periods of sickness, and the author also covers the topic of why we often underestimate the amount of time that has passed since events from the past. It is a mark of human nature to be too optimistic with respect to our futures, and Hammond brings up the example of our underestimating the amount of time we will need to finish projects. The author notes how much wonderful or catastrophic events have on our long-term happiness and opines on whether we recall positive or negative events from the past more vividly. Hammond even takes up the topic of whether animals can remember things, and closes this fascinating volume by offering suggestions to problems that the issue of time poses in people's lives.

Ordered this for my daughter's senior research paper and ended up reading it myself. I was sucked in and couldn't stop reading and wondering. This is a well written book with interesting research and stories that will warp your sense of time.

It can come as no surprise that the perception of time by the brain is more complex than we had previously thought. As with many other perceptual judgements, it appears that the seat of time perception is located in more than one location in the brain. (Another example is pain.) The author's premise is "the experience of time is actively created by our minds." She then proceeds with a well documented inventory of the theories and experiments concerning time perception. In the first chapter, the author makes the point that we are free to read the chapters of the book in our own order. I think this statement points to a weakness in the book. Ironically, the flow of the prose seems to bog at times and to speed up in others. I found that the logic in her own organisation of her writing was not always apparent to me. While the book held my interest for the most part, I wearied of her continual return to her own time perceptions. I realize this is a point of reference for her, but ultimately it wore out my attention. Further, in an effort to create some suspense, I am assuming; she spaces out the narrative of several of the key examples of time being warped by the stimuli around the experience. I did not like this technique. I prefer to have points made succinctly. Overall, however, I found a lot to appreciate in this book. I was able to familiarize myself with past and present theories in a format that was accessable and well referenced. THis book would be considered popular science, but the author was able to avoid "dumbing down" the material. This is a subject that is certainly a factor for all of us. We are often reminded that our multi focus, fast paced world is destroying our core ability to cope with our inner thoughts. I think this book provides a framework for that discussion that I am happy to have read.

Very slow read for me... But interesting at points. Still have three quarters of the book to go, so maybe it'll get better!

A most interesting book on time that is hard to explain. It is as once scientific, tantalizing, clear but yet mystifying at times. The complexity of the subject matter--and the author writes fluidly and transparently--may cause the reader to read this book slowly at times and ponder its assertions more than usual. One come away from reading this book feeling enriched.

A book wort reading.

ottimo libro che consiglio a tutti. Sebbebe sia in Ingese, è una lettura interessante e la scrittura è semplice ed amichevole

I have long had an ambition to write a book about time, and this book is exactly what I would have wished to write. I think it's an important book, sensitivity treated, and containing a treasury of fascinating psychological experiments and philosophical conclusions. Thank you very much, this was a terrific read!

Claudia Hammond has a done great work in summarizing a lot of the research into how we deal with our perceptions of time. She also provides many useful suggestions and strategies to enable the reader to enjoy time better.

Ich möchte gar nicht zu viel über das Buch selbst sprechen, hier muss sich jeder seine Meinung selbst bilden - allein aus diesem Grund sollte man einen Blick auf das Buch werfen. Lieferung war perfekt, gibt nichts zu beanstanden.