Released on: February 5, 2008, 4:39 pm

Press Release Author: The Thought of Infinity

Industry: Human Resources

Press Release Summary: The results of the David Eagleman experiment in duration
dilation are invalidated by a new report that found numerous flaws in methodology
and the structure of the experiment. It seems that time can appear to slow down
during frightening events after all.

Press Release Body: For Immediate Release:
Eagleman \'Time Slowing\' Experiment Invalidated


R&D engineer, technologist, and conceptual theorist Marshall Barnes has now
published a digital article that completely invalidates the celebrated findings of
Baylor College professor David M. Eagleman, showing the perception of time slowing
down during a crisis event is a function of enhanced memory. First published in
December of 2007 in the online journal PlosOne
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0001295 , the peer
reviewed Does Time Really Slow Down During A Frightening Event? posited that
anecdotal accounts of time slowing down for people during frightening events are
simply a function of the brain recording the event in a richer, more detailed
process, resulting in memories of things happening slower.


The response to the report across the Internet was mixed, even as media attention of
the Eagleman report grew. Many readers stated that their own experiences seemed to
suggest that they were able to escape injury because they were able to respond
faster due to their perceptions of time slowing down. Others just accepted the
report as \"science\" and therefore correct. Central to the Eagleman report was his
dramatic experiment where he dropped volunteers some 150 ft into a net using a
towering contraption known as a SCAD or Suspended Catch Air Device. During the fall,
he had them wear perceptual chronometers - wrist devices that would flash numbers so
fast that they couldn\'t be identified under normal circumstances. The theory
Eagleman had was that if time slowed down for the volunteers, as they plunged
backward into the net, then they would be able to read the numbers on their way
down.


In addition, Eagleman had each volunteer watch others fall and then estimate how
long that fall lasted. After each one had taken the plunge themselves, they were
asked to imagine how long it it lasted. The results of these activities, as reported
by Eagleman, were that the volunteers couldn\'t read the numbers during the fall and
their estimated times for their own falls were an average of 36% longer than the
actual time. Eagleman\'s conclusion - time does not slow down during a frightening
event, but memory makes it appear that it had.


Duration Dilation and the Flawed Frightening Experiment is a lengthy and
authoritative rebuttal of the entire Eagleman project - the way anecdotal accounts
are referenced, the methodology used to design the experiment, the use of the SCAD,
the interpretation of the data, and more, are all covered and criticized, at times
using links to video evidence. Among the most persuasive are video clips of the
experiment itself, from sources such as the Discovery Channel and the BBC, that
reveal devastating flaws that invalidate Eagleman\'s findings. The most dramatic of
these are the clips that show Eagleman and his assistant saying that volunteers are
to estimate when their SCAD fall has ended by their hitting the net. Marshall, using
a new scientific approach he developed called technocogninetics, researched this and
revealed that the SCAD is designed so that a person can\'t tell when they\'ve hit the
net. This startling revelation, straight from the web site of the facility that
Eagleman used for his tests, as well as another, shatters the evidence that Eagleman
cites as proof of elongated memory. The technocogninetic effect of the SCAD is that
the volunteers would not be able to tell when their fall had exactly ended because
the SCAD itself makes that impossible.


Perhaps the deathblow to the entire affair is that Marshall found that the BBC
reported online that during a visit with Eagleman and the SCAD at the Zero Gravity
Amusement Park, a volunteer was able to repeatedly read the first number accurately
and get the second number close to the actual number, which looked similar. Marshall
included a video of this event in his online paper which shows Eagleman begrudgingly
admitting on camera that time had seemed to slow down for this volunteer. This too
fits within the realm of Marshall\'s technocogninetic science which addresses the
effect of devices on human consciousness. Marshall\'s contentions included that the
time that the fall lasts, the types of numbers displayed, as well as whether or not
an individual may be prone to be able to rapidly acquire targets under duress, all
are critical factors that bear influence on the question of mental perceptions of
time during high stress events, but these critical aspects were ignored by Eagleman
and his team when designing the experiment. That volunteer for the BBC session
proves that Marshall\'s contention over these perceived experiment design flaws are
more than valid and in fact raise questions that are left unanswered. This renders
the Eagleman report conclusions totally inconsequential.


Duration Dilation and the Flawed Frightening Experiment provides a panoramic view of
the truth behind duration dilation, using anecdotal accounts, video demonstrations
and references to Marshall\'s his own research, and that of others. The conclusions
are that, in the wake of the Eagleman experiment being inconsequential, there is no
evidence that perceptions of time slowing down are solely a function of richly
encoded memory. Instead, such perceptions are real and could even be explored for
military applications. The paper can be viewed by going to the AET RaDAL Scientific
American blog portal
http://science-community.sciam.com/blog/Aet-Radals-Blog/300008993

Web Site: http://

Contact Details: For more information email Thomas Newton at to.infinity@london.com