TIME FLEW -- I MUST BE HAVING FUN: THE EFFECT OF TIME PERCEPTION ON TASK ENJOYMENT

Abstract

It is well known that when people are engaged in an enjoyable task, time seems to pass quickly. This study explored the converse of this phenomenon by examining the effect of an accelerated sense of time, created using an altered clock, on the enjoyment of a word game. Sixty-two undergraduate male and female participants were divided into two groups, an accelerated time condition and a veridical time condition. In the accelerated condition participants played a modified solitaire version of the game Bananagrams? in the presence of a clock that had been modified to run at 142% normal clock speed. In the veridical condition participants played the game with an externally identical normal speed clock. Although participants in the accelerated clock condition reported enjoying the task more than those in the veridical clock condition, the results failed to reach significance: t (54) = .160, p = .116. The results suggest that people may make attributions of emotional states based on temporal experience.