Hammond repeats the common misunderstanding that most people will pick double the money later, but people with ADHD will take the money now: that is, they are unable to wait. Hammond's discussion on the spatial conceptualising of time was interesting, but other parts were too generalistic and made culturally-specific assumptions.Įxample: on page 37 Hammond restates the impulse control test of asking the reader if they would like 100 pounds now, or 200 pounds in a month's time. So instead of pop-physics, about what the hell time is, instead this is pop-psych, about things like how time seems to move more quickly when you are older because a year is only 1/60th of your life, and not 1/8th of your life, as it is when you are a kiddling. This is not 'Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time', but instead, 'Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception'. The moral of my review is when Xmas shopping, and deciding to grab an interesting-looking book for yourself from the shelf, read the whole title. Claudia Hammond offers insight into how to manage our time more efficiently, speed time up and slow it down at will, plan for the future with more accuracy, and, ultimately, use the warping of time to our own advantage. Time Warped is an absorbing and interactive guide to one of the strongest, most inescapable forces in our lives, which ultimately teaches us how we can improve our own relationship with time. We meet one group of volunteers who steer themselves towards the edge of a stairwell, blindfolded, and another who are strapped into a harness and dropped off the edge of a building. Time rules our lives, but how much do we understand it? And is it possible to retrain our brains and improve our relationship with it?ĭrawing on the latest research from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and biology, and using original research on the way memory shapes our understanding of time, the acclaimed writer and BBC broadcaster Claudia Hammond delves into the mysteries of time perception.Īlong the way, Claudia introduces us to an extraordinary array of characters willing to go to great length in the interests of research, including the French speleologist Michel Siffre, who spends two months in an ice cave in complete darkness. Why does life speed up as we get older? Why does the clock in your head sometimes move at a different speed from the one on the wall? Have you ever tried to spend a day without looking at a clock or checking your watch? It's almost impossible. Drawing on the latest research from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and biology, plus original research, writer and broadcaster Claudia Hammond delves into the mysteries of time perception and offers advice for how to better manage our own.

Time warped by claudia hammond