Déjà vu

[onan]

Generally speaking, stressful situations disregulate our ability to judge time. Our senses do not in any real consideration become hypervigilant.

There is a video floating around on the interwebs of an experiement on this very subject. A person is outfitted with a wrist watch type device with a LED timer. The hypothesis being that under stress the numbers would appear to slow down. The stress added was to have the subject fall several meters into a net. No one that was tested was able to discern a difference in the watch image.

However our memories are very powerful and can portray the past event in a way that seems to have everything slow down.

[albrecht]

Generally speaking, stressful situations disregulate our ability to judge time. Our senses do not in any real consideration become hypervigilant.

There is a video floating around on the interwebs of an experiement on this very subject. A person is outfitted with a wrist watch type device with a LED timer. The hypothesis being that under stress the numbers would appear to slow down. The stress added was to have the subject fall several meters into a net. No one that was tested was able to discern a difference in the watch image.

However our memories are very powerful and can portray the past event in a way that seems to have everything slow down.

I could buy that explanation. Like we've recorded the event but only afterwards on reflection, instantly afterwards, we replay notice more detail and visualize it in slow-motion. Considering that the actions taken are almost, if not totally, instinctive (you start to steer away before you "think" about it. Not instinct like animals have but muscle-memory or some part of the brain that gets your arms to turn the wheel without consciously thinking about it.)

I reckon deja vu could be related. Imagine that we record most everything but only pay attention to something/person we focus on, a surprise, or for patterns. We filter out almost all of our perceptions or, what's going on out there around us. I wonder if deja vu isn't when we get into a similar situation where we focused on a subject that was similar to one in the past but was filtered out because it was not our focus. But still exists on our "memory tape" and so we get a feeling "I've been here before" etc?