A distortion of time is often reported under the presence of stress or threatening stimuli, for instance motor vehicle accidents or near-death experiences. There is a lack of research on the complexity of time distortion under stress; thus, the present study aimed to explore the relationship between stress and time perception. Given the challenges associated with producing a stress response in a laboratory setting, difficult tasks have been previously used to produce a stress response, such as anagram tasks. However, it remains unknown whether experiencing time pressure while completing a stressful task can also influence time distortion. To investigate this, participants completed either an easy or difficult anagram task and received either an unspecified time limit or no time limit to complete the task. It was hypothesized that participants would experience the greatest distortion of time when the task was difficult, and they were provided an unspecified time limit. Contrary to the hypothesis, we failed to find differences in task performance or time perception across the various conditions, which may be explained by the inability to produce a stress state. While stress manipulation was unsuccessful, the findings suggest utilizing multiple tasks may be more effective at replicating a physiological or psychological stress state. Thus, the results of this study warrant further investigation to examine the relationship between stress, time pressure, and time distortion.

Research suggests a relationship between time distortion and mental health disorders, and the present study sought to examine this proposition. Prior research suggests that negative emotions are associated with the slowing down of time. Because mental health disorder symptomology is associated with more negative emotions, it was predicted that negative emotions would mediate the relationship between mental health disorder symptomology and time distortion. A survey was administered to university students that contained measures of anxiety, depression, emotional experiences, and time perception. Mental health disorder symptomology was found to be related to negative emotions. However, negative emotions and mental health disorder symptomology were not related to time distortion. Thus, the proposed mediation model was not supported. The primary reason for these results likely lies in the challenges of measuring time distortion. Despite the lack of effects found in the present study, investigating this topic is crucial for understanding the perceptual experiences of those with mental health disorders.

No description available.