Anxiety and accelerated passage of time judgment

The principal objective of this study was to ascertain the relationship between anxiety (both trait and state) and the pervasive phenomenon of accelerated passage of time judgement (APoT). Previous research indicates that, contingent on the sample and survey methodology employed, between 64.8% and 83.7% of individuals perceive the passage of time as accelerated. Nevertheless, over 50% of the participants exhibited elevated levels of anxiety. The analysis demonstrated that the comparable frequency distribution of anxiety and APoT is not random. Significant correlations were identified between trait anxiety indicators and time pressure (r=0.388; p<0.001), as well as between assessments of the speed of the passage of past (r=0.262; p=0.003), present (r=0.177; p=0.046) and future time (r=0.180; p=0.042). Therefore, regression analysis indicated that trait anxiety, the subjective perception of time passage, and time pressure constitute a unified psychological mechanism. An increase in one element of this mechanism leads to an increase in the others. In order to achieve the objectives of this study, Spielberger's STAI and Wittmann-Lehnhoff's STQ were employed. The latter was modified by the addition of a series of questions designed to elicit estimates of future time intervals. This innovation permitted the questions to be grouped according to the results of factor analysis into the blocks "past", "present" and "future". This led to the conclusion that there are two psychological mechanisms of time estimation: a present-centred mechanism and a linear-biographical mechanism.