Smith publishes on perception of time in Ergonomics of Design

Thomas Smith Smiling
Thomas Smith, PhD

Thomas Smith, PhD, lecturer in the School of Kinesiology, has recently had his research, “Experiencing Time – A Commentary on Recent Perspectives on the Perception of Time”, accepted for publication in the journal, Ergonomics in Design. Smith’s research clearly shows that an experimental protocol can be devised demonstrating that the passage of time is not directly perceived. The findings thus support previous observational claims that time is not perceived. The implication is that, down through the millennia, behavioral efforts to design proxies for detecting the passage of time and thus experiencing time – i.e., early pyramids and temples, and more recent timekeeping technologies such as the hourglass, clocks and watches, or the atomic clock – allow us to control temporal influences on our behavior. One implication of the research is that the passage of time represents the only environmental stimulus that cannot be directly experienced as perceived sensory feedback.”