The Study of Time Perception in Physics Classes

Abstract

This paper describes interdisciplinary, practical work in physics classes aimed at the study of time perception. The experimental part includes the evaluation of minute intervals by a person who relies on an internal sense of time. This lab is done in pairs: the experimenter and the tested person. The paper suggests that certain topical, interdisciplinary issues – issues typically excluded from physics and psychology courses – are a means toward interaction of two radically different branches of knowledge (physics and psychology) within the educational process. Such use of interdisciplinarity increases both the students’ interest in physics and the quality of physics education. The paper also summarizes and offers for dispute some additional results (quantitative data) about types of time perception. Most students (over 250) demonstrate underestimation and overestimation of time intervals: tachychronia (“accelerated” time sense) and bradychronia (“decelerated” time sense).