Slowing Down Remembrance of Things Fast

“…fear does not actually speed up our rate of perception or mental processing. Instead, it allows us to remember what we do experience in greater detail. Since our perception of time is based on the number of things we remember, fearful experiences thus seem to unfold more slowly.”

From “How the Brain Stops Time,” by Jeff Wise, Psychology Today, March 13, 2010

Stetson C, Fiesta MP, & Eagleman DM. (2007). Does time really slow down during a frightening event? PloS One. 2 (12).