Descriptiveness: A Narrative Analysis

Time often seems to be subjectively perceived by people depending upon the particular situation or circumstance. During a certain period of time, one individual may feel that time is moving at a fast rate, while another individual may feel that time is moving at a slow rate. However, since time is generally considered as an objective construct, and is measured to be moving at a consistent rate, the idea that time can be perceived differently by different individuals appears to be quite contradictory. These counterintuitive ideas raise a distinct problem in our concept of temporal awareness.
If we consider time to have a set order and duration, then it appears to be impossible for time to be moving at a different rate for different individuals. …show more content…
If we consider the snapshot view, and how it claims that we infer time from our memory, our first instinct may be to reject this. However, we must examine the extent to which our memory may be able to help provide a further explanation for the reason individuals feel that they have subjective experiences of time. From our knowledge about neuroscience, we know that there are different kinds of memory, ranging from a working memory to a long-term memory. The term working memory refers to the part of our brain system that provides for the temporary storage and manipulation of information necessary for some of our more complex cognitive tasks. If we are to interpret this definition in terms of our perceptions and experiences, we will say that our working memory is the method through which our perceptions are able to be translated into our experiences. Therefore, when we perceive these short momentary points in time, these are encoded into our working memory, which helps us produce a comprehendible experience of …show more content…
Additionally, we have made the claim that we are able experience order and duration through our cognitive interpretations in our working memory. In interpreting the present moment, our working memory is somehow able to produce an experience of temporal depth. Although, the issue with this is that if we are saying that our working memory subjectively induces temporal depth on our string of individual moments, we are saying nothing more than that our working memory produces a subjective experience of time through our perceptions. Since we have already stated this above, settling with this explanation would provide no additional progress in our discussion of how we are actually able to experience duration in time. Rather, let us make the claim that our experience of time depends upon our levels of cognitive activity and awareness or our direction of focus. If we are immensely focused on something, and are not paying attention to anything else but what we are focused on, often we feel that time will have moved fast when we check the clock after whatever we were focused on. To explain this phenomenon, we must first acknowledge that our perception of the present moment is constant, and is being objectively encoded into our working memory since objective time moves at a consistent rate. However, when our awareness is