Time Warped: How Repetition Distorts Our Sense of Duration

Why do familiar experiences sometimes feel like they happened longer ago than they actually did? 

In this episode of Under the Cortex, host Özge Gürcanlı Fischer-Baum speaks with Brynn Sherman from the University of Pennsylvania about her recent study published in Psychological Science, the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science. Sherman's research uncovers a surprising illusion: repeated experiences, which are more vividly remembered, are often perceived as having occurred further in the past than they did. 

Through a series of experiments, Sherman and her colleague Yousif demonstrate that this distortion in time perception is both robust and consistent, shedding light on how our memories can mislead us about the timing of events. Tune in to explore the mechanisms behind this illusion and its implications for our understanding of memory and time. 

If you're interested in learning more about this research, visit psychologicalscience.org. 

Send us your thoughts and questions at underthecortex@psychologicalscience.org.