Interesting. I’m aware of the common feeling that one’s childhood room seems “much smaller than I remembered” when it’s visited in adulthood (especially after a long time away), but I had never heard that feeling tied to level of time/activity done in that space.

It makes a lot of sense in retrospect.

No, it wasn't the mental model, it was literally this picture, i.e. the image, down to the colours and everything.

is it because you were small when you were child and thats why these spaces are bigger in your memmory than you experience them now. for example for my kids ceiling is 5 times theyr own heigt. that would be huge for adult me to have ceiling 10meter high.