I am reminded of an incident relayed to me by an office worker in the early 2000s. A colleague had left the building at lunchtime and had been witness to some kind of shooting incident where robbers or gang members on motorcycles had opened fire on someone or something else - I don’t think it was ever discovered what the target or cause was. This was in South America, so not a wholly unusual scenario. But the debrief of the employee was eye-opening. He described everything that had happened from his perspective: he heard gunshots, hid behind a bin, and waited until it was over. He said there were dozens of gunshots and he had stayed in hiding for about ten minutes, until he heard the bikes speed away.

However, upon reviewing the CCTV footage, it became clear that the whole incident, from bike arrival to employee emerging from behind the bin, lasted about 11 seconds.

The colleague was astounded to see the footage and couldn’t explain why he had felt it was so much longer.

I think there’s a good chance that stressful situations play havoc with human memory formation.