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We have widely varying perceptions of time. Children have trouble waiting for anything. ("Are we there yet?") Boredom is often connected to our sense of time passing (or not passing) . As people grow older, time seems to speed up, the years flitting by without a pause. How does our sense of time come about? In Felt Time, Marc Wittmann explores the riddle of subjective time, explaining our perception of time -- whether moment by moment, or in terms of life as a whole. Drawing on the latest insights from psychology and neuroscience, Wittmann offers a new answer to the question of how we experience time.Wittmann explains, among other things, how we choose between savoring the moment and deferring gratification; why impulsive people are bored easily, and why their boredom is often a matter of time; whether each person possesses a personal speed, a particular brain rhythm distinguishing quick people from slow people; and why the feeling of duration can serve as an "error signal," letting us know when it is taking too long for dinner to be ready or for the bus to come.



About the Author

Marc Wittmann

Marc Wittmann is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Frontier Areas of Psychology and Mental Health, Freiburg, Germany. He studied Psychology and Philosophy at the Universities of Fribourg, Switzerland, and Munich, Germany (1990-1994) . He received his Ph.D. (1997) and his Habilitation (2007) at the Institute of Medical Psychology, University of Munich. From 2000 to 2004 he was head of the Generation Research Program, Bad Tolz, University of Munich. 2004 to 2009 he was Research Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego.



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