> We feel time differently over our lives. As a toddler, an afternoon feels like an eternity. In middle age, “no matter how I try, those years just flow by, like a broken down dam.” For a 5 year old, a year was a fifth of their life, and feels like it. For a 40 year old, it is just another year.

I think this explanation is true but incomplete. I believe it's also related to Critical Flicker Fusion Frequency [0], the way I see it, if an organism is smaller it has a higher frequency, it sees more image per second, therefore perception of time is slower. (E.g. a fly sees you moving really slowly). Maybe it's related to the processing time of images, with smaller brains insect can process more of them per second.

Maybe humans process more images as children, therefore see the time time going slower.

It's been a while I didn't think about this, maybe some studies have been made in the past years.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flicker_fusion_threshold

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nrhrjrjrjtntbt 6 hours ago | parent [-]

That would.im theory make kids the best at certain sports like table tennis say. Is there an objective test?

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nostrademons 6 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That is largely true across a variety of sports. eSports like Starcraft typically peak between 18-22, and it's possible the real age is younger but minors are usually excluded from pro leagues because they can't sign contracts. Gymnastics seems to peak between age 13-16; it was enough of a problem that the FIG set an age limit of 16 so the sport wasn't dominated by prepubescent girls age 13-14 (18 for men because the events tend to be more strength-based than coordination-based). Top table tennis players usually tend to start between 4-6 [1] and win their championships around their early 20s. [2]

There's some lag between starting and being world-class simply because continued practice makes you better. Plus, you get much better at sustained focus and being able to connect disparate training experiences together as your consciousness develops in the teens.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/tabletennis/comments/1i085sr/a_coll...

[2] https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/forum/topics/what-is-the-pe...

	▲	bombcar 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Part of the gymnastics thing is flexibility of the young; if toddlers could be coordinated and strong enough they’d likely dominate as they can contort their bodies into positions impossible for adults.

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elias_t 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

IMO there is also muscle memory, strategy ect. Being able to process more information doesn't mean it's processed better, the contrary actually if you think about processing times