Temporal binding, causation and agency: Developing a new theoretical framework

Cognitive Science 44 (5):e12843 (2020)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

In temporal binding, the temporal interval between one event and another, occurring some time later, is subjectively compressed. We discuss two ways in which temporal binding has been conceptualized. In studies showing temporal binding between a voluntary action and its causal consequences, such binding is typically interpreted as providing a measure of an implicit or pre-reflective “sense of agency”. However, temporal binding has also been observed in contexts not involving voluntary action, but only the passive observation of a cause-effect sequence. In those contexts, it has been interpreted as a top-down effect on perception reflecting a belief in causality. These two views need not be in conflict with one another, if one thinks of them as concerning two separate mechanisms through which temporal binding can occur. In this paper, we explore an alternative possibility: that there is a unitary way of explaining temporal binding both within and outside the context of voluntary action as a top-down effect on perception reflecting a belief in causality. Any such explanation needs to account for ways in which agency, and factors connected with agency, have been shown to affect the strength of temporal binding. We show that principles of causal inference and causal selection already familiar from the literature on causal learning have the potential to explain why the strength of people’s causal beliefs can be affected by the extent to which they are themselves actively involved in bringing about events, thus in turn affecting binding.

Similar books and articles

Intentions and expectations in temporal binding.Kai Engbert & Andreas Wohlschläger - 2007 - Consciousness and Cognition 16 (2):255-264.
Temporal binding and the perception/cognition boundary.Christoph Hoerl - 2019 - In Valtteri Arstila, Adrian Bardon, Sean Enda Power & Argiro Vatakis (eds.), The illusions of time: Philosophical and psychological essays on timing and time perception. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 275-287.
The Representation of Time in Agency.Holly Andersen - 2013 - In Adrian Bardon & Heather Dyke (eds.), Blackwell Companion to Philosophy of Time. Wiley-Blackwell.
On Time, Causation, and the Sense of Agency.M. Vuorre - 2017 - Journal of Consciousness Studies 24 (3-4):203-215.

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-04-14

Downloads
420 (#42,166)

6 months
106 (#32,014)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

References found in this work

Causation.David Lewis - 1973 - Journal of Philosophy 70 (17):556-567.
Causation.D. Lewis - 1973 - In Philosophical Papers Ii. Oxford University Press. pp. 159-213.
Cause and Norm.Christopher Hitchcock & Joshua Knobe - 2009 - Journal of Philosophy 106 (11):587-612.

View all 43 references / Add more references