Background Commonly heard statements such as “Christmas comes around more quickly each year” suggest that the passage of time between annual events can become distorted, leading to the sensation of time passing more quickly than normal. At present however, it is unclear how prevalent such beliefs are and, what factors are predictive of it. Aim To explore the prevalence of beliefs that annual events such as Christmas (Study 1 UK sample) and Ramadan (Study 2 Iraqi sample) feel like they come around more quickly each year. To establish the association between distortions to the passage of time between annual events and emotional wellbeing, event specific enjoyment, memory function and self-reported attention to time. Methods Participants completed an online questionnaire exploring their subjective experience of time in relation to Christmas and Ramadan. In addition, measures of attention to time, memory function, quality of life and event specific emotion were also taken. Findings There was widespread agreement that Christmas and Ramadan appeared to come around more quickly each year. In both countries, this belief was associated with greater prospective memory errors, greater attention to time and greater enjoyment of the event. Furthermore, in the UK greater belief that Christmas comes around more quickly was associated with lower social quality of life and in Iraq, greater belief that Ramadan comes around more quickly each year was associated with lower age and female gender. Conclusions Distortions to the passage of time for annual events are widespread, occur across multiple cultures and are consistently predicted by prospective function, event enjoyment and attention to time. The absence of an association between older age (above 55 years) and a faster passage of time suggests that caution should be taken when concluding that time passes more quickly with increasing age. Citation: Ogden R, Alatrany SSJ, Flaiyah AM, ALi Sayyid ALdrraji H, Musa H, Alatrany ASS, et al. (2024) Distortions to the passage of time for annual events: Exploring why Christmas and Ramadan feel like they come around more quickly each year. PLoS ONE 19(7): e0304660. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0304660 Editor: Ellen L. Idler, Emory University, School of Public Health, UNITED STATES Received: September 26, 2023; Accepted: May 15, 2024; Published: July 10, 2024 Copyright: © 2024 Ogden et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting information files. Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
The issue of nuclear proliferation is one of the most vital issues as it reflects a form of dealing in the field of international relations. Therefore, the Middle East region has taken great interest in reducing the levels of nuclear armament and acquiring nuclear power within the strategic framework of the international and regional powers. The establishment of a nuclear-weapon-free zone in the Middle East region is currently one of the most important international and regional arrangements for controlling the levels of nuclear proliferation and attempting to build a state of stability and balance. In the Middle East and the world. The importance of the research comes from the fact that it deals with an important and vital issue
... Show MoreThe aim of this study is to utilize the behavior of a mathematical model consisting of three-species with Lotka Volterra functional response with incorporating of fear and hunting cooperation factors with both juvenile and adult predators. The existence of equilibrium points of the system was discussed the conditions with variables. The behavior of model referred by local stability in nearness of any an equilibrium point and the conditions for the method of approximating the solution has been studied locally. We define a suitable Lyapunov function that covers every element of the nonlinear system and illustrate that it works. The effect of the death factor was observed in some periods, leading to non-stability. To confirm the theore
... Show MoreThe major mortality factor for women globally is breast cancer, and current treatments have several adverse effects. Hesperetin (HSP) is a flavone that occurs naturally with anti-tumor capabilities and has been investigated as a potential treatment for cancer. This study aimed to investigate the cytotoxic and anti-malignant potential of HSP on breast cancer cells (BT-474) and normal cells (MCF-10a). The results indicated that HSP has dose-dependent cytotoxicity in BT-474 and MCF-10a cells. The elevated concentration of HSP lowered cell viability and proliferation. The half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of HSP in BT-
Thyroid disease is a common disease affecting millions worldwide. Early diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disease can help prevent more serious complications and improve long-term health outcomes. However, thyroid disease diagnosis can be challenging due to its variable symptoms and limited diagnostic tests. By processing enormous amounts of data and seeing trends that may not be immediately evident to human doctors, Machine Learning (ML) algorithms may be capable of increasing the accuracy with which thyroid disease is diagnosed. This study seeks to discover the most recent ML-based and data-driven developments and strategies for diagnosing thyroid disease while considering the challenges associated with imbalanced data in thyroid dise
... Show MoreIn this work, the annual behavior of critical frequency and electron density parameters of the ionosphere have been studied for the years (1989, 2001 and 2014) and (1986, 1996 and 2008) which represent the maximum and minimum of years in the solar cycles (22, 23 and 24) respectively. The annual behavior of (Ne, fo ) parameters have been investigated for different heights of Ionosphere layer (100 -1000) Km. The dataset was created both of critical frequency and electron density parameters by using the international reference ionosphere model (IRI-2016 model). This study showed result that during the maximum solar cycles the values of the (Ne) parameter change with
Time is very important in educational institutions. It is also one of our contemporary problem ‚as time is a clear – cut and limited factor‚ it demands that administrators should monitor it by administering and monitoring the principles of time.
Hence‚ the researcher attempts to identify the skills of administrating time and the reasons that cause the waste of time of the Heads of Departments at university of Baghdad.
Significance of the research:
Time is very important to all educational administrators and one of them is the institutions of Higher education. One of the
... Show MoreThis research sheds light on the development that has occurred on the use of press pictures in the Iraqi press by analyzing the form and content of the images used in (Al-Sabaah) newspaper for the 2012 model. The researcher's interest in this topic for what represented by the press picture of a way to highlight and attract the reader's attention to the substance journalist who represents the goals behind the newspaper publishing.
This research is divided into three sections. The first one dealt with the methodological framework of the research, and the second part addressed the aspect of press pictures and its history and technological development, while the third section devoted to the study of the development of the form and co
... Show MoreAs they are the smallest functional parts of the muscle, motor units (MUs) are considered as the basic building blocks of the neuromuscular system. Monitoring MU recruitment, de-recruitment, and firing rate (by either invasive or surface techniques) leads to the understanding of motor control strategies and of their pathological alterations. EMG signal decomposition is the process of identification and classification of individual motor unit action potentials (MUAPs) in the interference pattern detected with either intramuscular or surface electrodes. Signal processing techniques were used in EMG signal decomposition to understand fundamental and physiological issues. Many techniques have been developed to decompose intramuscularly detec
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