Miniature environments and subjective estimates of time.
A recent review of a century of studies describes the different conditions in which subjective estimates of time deviate, sometimes considerably, from clock time. With reference to experimental data published a few years ago, showing that prolonged observation of a scene in miniature induces the observer to ascribe durations contracted by the scale factor to events imaginable therein, it is demonstrated that a simple comparison with the time of the experimenter does not always reveal all the effects obtainable from the data. Avoiding questions of interpretation belonging to the field of psychology, the author applies the physical law of time contraction to a miniaturized scene to provide a time reference dependent on the scale factor, to be exact, proportional to its square root.
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Istituto di Fisica Medica, Università degli Studi, Siena, Italy.
D004780:Environment, Controlled; D006801:Humans; D013998:Time Perception