Aging and Time Perception for Short and Long Durations: A Question of Attention?

This study examined the difference in the perception of time between young and older adults in a temporal bisection task with four different duration ranges from a few milliseconds (500 ms) to several seconds (30 s). In addition, individual cognitive capacities (short-term memory, working memory, processing speed, attention) were assessed with different neuropsychological tests. The results showed a general effect of age on the variability of time judgment, indicating a lower sensitivity to time in the old than in the younger adults, regardless of the duration range tested. In addition, the results showed that the individual differences in time sensitivity were explained by attention capacities, which decline with aging.