When I glance at my watch or a clock that has a toggle second hand, one that moves, stays still for one second and then moves again to the next second mark, I’m often stuck by the impression that the timepiece has stopped. For a moment. It seems that when I look at a watch that is moving, the second hand seems to be stopped only momentarily every second, but when I first look at such a watch, the second hand seems to be stopped permanently until it takes up its motion again. That first delay between motions seems so long. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? Are there related phenomena that would help me to understand this misperception?
At a guess, I would say it’s the same phenomenon that makes a sweep second hand look like it’s not moving at first glance. What that’s called, I have no idea.
The last time I checked, there have been legitimate scientific studies on this with no firm conclusions. It is another brain mystery.
Here is a short abstract from one study but you have to pay for the whole article:
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0960982202007078
Saccadic masking is probably relevant here.
Don’t know what it’s called but I have experienced it too. Sometimes when I look at clocks that advance the second hand in second increments it appears that the first movement goes backward.
Or sometimes, when I’m looking at a walk/don’t walk sign that’s flashing the don’t walk sign, it seems to be solidly on ‘don’t walk’ for the first good while, for much longer than the normal flash interval. Then, it seems to switch to the normal flashing.
Yes! I’ve seen this too! Usually on wall clocks like they used to have in school.
A long time ago, my girlfriend took me to see Endless Love, and for much of the movie, I could have sworn time came to an absolute standstill.
A few times I even had an out of body experience as my soul left my lifeless body, and trotted off to see what was in the concession stand.
On average, from the time when you look at the watch to when the second hand moves, it’s about a half a second. But sometimes you glance at the watch just barely after it’s moved, in which case it takes almost a full second. Taking almost twice as long as you expect looks like it’s not working.
I’ve experienced this quite a lot with my wristwatches! The second hand just seems to take a little longer than it should before ticking over. I always attributed it to not really being ‘in sync’ with the rhythm of the watch and not knowing how much of the second was left.
This happens to me too, once in awhile, when I look at the second hand on my wristwatch. I had no idea it’s been studied. Cool stuff. Ignorance fought!