A silly psychology question: What's the time?

Discussion in 'Human Science' started by Tiassa, Jul 24, 2003.

  1. Tiassa Let us not launch the boat ... Valued Senior Member

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    37,884
    If I put a camera on my computer to watch my eyes .....

    It starts with a simple phenomenon we all experience. We notice our clocks at certain times.

    - (what's the) 4:11
    - 4:20 (house joint subcommittee meeting is hereby convened)
    - (John) 3:16
    - 5:27 (Tiassa's birthday)
    - 10:13 (Tiassa's partner's birthday; X-Files production company)
    - 9:11 (emergency)

    ... and so on.

    So, if I put a camera on my computer to watch my eyes, will I find that I'm regularly glancing at the clock, and only noticing these particular times? Or is my internal sense of time such that certain familiar associations compel me to look at the clock approximately when my subconscious thinks it's time?

    I can't imagine someone who's birthday is on Christmas notices every time the nearest digital clock says 5:27.

    Well, not every time.

    :m:,
    Tiassa

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  3. Mystech Adult Supervision Required Registered Senior Member

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    I always seem to happen to look at the clock at either 12:34 or 1:23. . . either that or I just remember looking at the clock at those times better than at other times.
     
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  5. Tenson Prime Registered Member

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    Perhaps it is like dejevoo, often you think you feel dejevoo,(correct spelling?) but you are reexperiencing a similar sistuation, but in any other sistuation things would be normal. Maybe you choose to notice especially. Also maybe you just do it subconciously.
     
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  7. Absane Rocket Surgeon Valued Senior Member

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    Deja Vu?

    Anyway, I always see 10:10, 4:30, 9:11, 4:11, 7:11. I do not know why.
     
  8. Xenu BBS Whore Registered Senior Member

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    706
    I'd probably say both. The brain's got a pretty good clock. I remember in highschool I'd always wake up 1/2 an hour before my alarm, no matter when I went to sleep. I've heard of even more accurate situations, down to the minute.

    For myself, I get intances every once in a while, but it's not really any greater chance than any other time. It's just that certain times stick out more, because they have other meanings.
     
  9. ripleofdeath Registered Senior Member

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    2,762
    tiassa
    quote
    So, if I put a camera on my computer to watch my eyes, will I find that I'm regularly glancing at the clock, and only noticing these particular times? Or is my internal sense of time such that certain familiar associations compel me to look at the clock approximately when my subconscious thinks it's time?
    ---
    what is it that you remember?

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  10. moving Registered Senior Member

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    I always see 11:34 which is hell upsidedown. I think it means I'm in heaven.
     
  11. one_raven God is a Chinese Whisper Valued Senior Member

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    Kind of like when you get a new car that you have never had any reason to be interested in before, you "happen" to notice how many of your make and model cars are on the road.

    Or, if you suspect you are being followed by someone that drives a blue Fird Windstar, you will notice every Windstar on the road and it will seem like there are so many more than there were yesterday.

    I'd wager that you likely check the clock a lot more than you originally realized (so often it is a subconscious thing) because there was no need to "notice" all those times you checked except when something "coincidental" happens.

    How many times have you checked the time so absent-mindedly that when someone asks you the time immediately afterwards you had to re-check because you don't know?
     
  12. 420Joey SF's Incontestable Pimp Valued Senior Member

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    1,189
    I see the clock at 4:20 , I think the weed slighly fucked up my subconxiousness

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  13. cthulhus slave evil servant Registered Senior Member

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    i always see the clock on 6:66
     
  14. Absane Rocket Surgeon Valued Senior Member

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    Oh.. I forgot to mention that one, too... Damn kids games on the calculator... "hey, type 1, 1, 3, 4 in your calculator and turn it upside down!"

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  15. man on the hill Registered Member

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    about a month before the 9-11 incident i always saw the clock at 9:11. And it was like I would wake up at 9:11 ...one time i removed a shirt from the clock and it said 9:11
    I would like to think that I just look at the clock alot and I only seem to notice when it says 9:11 but I dont think thats it...It stopped happening at the end of 2002 but I must have seen it at least once a day. Sometimes I would see 9:11 more then twice a day becuase my car clock was an hour off
     
  16. Bebelina kospla.com Valued Senior Member

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    I often look at 22.22, what is that then?
     
  17. Martian Registered Senior Member

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    44
    coincidence?

    I think one of the plausible explanations is that we can find almost all particular clock time referring to some meanings :m:
     
  18. Bebelina kospla.com Valued Senior Member

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    Yes, of course, but if a certain person sees a certain clock time so often that it has formed a pattern then at least I would take that as a sign to check up what those numbers could mean in a different context. I beleive that the universe gives us clues, signals all the time, as guidance.
     
  19. John Connellan Valued Senior Member

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    Thats amazing, I always tend to see 12:34 too! I think it must be just that it stands out for some reason!
     
  20. Merlijn curious cat Registered Senior Member

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    Confirmation

    Yup, and it has a name: the confirmation bias.

    Once you have an idea evidence supporting the idea tends to stick more in memory. So, ideas tend to reinforce themselves. This is one of the most common and well known biases in human thinking.
     
  21. Canute Registered Senior Member

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    Re: Confirmation

    That's a neat way of putting it. Perhaps this is the most common cause of people creating quite different and contradictory ideas from the same sets of data. It's a paradigm protection mechanism called self-deception. Perhaps one could say that all observations of clocks are theory-laden.
     
  22. Merlijn curious cat Registered Senior Member

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    Perhaps one could say that all observations per se are theory-laden.
     
  23. Canute Registered Senior Member

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    Quite.
     

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