Time Perception: A Review on Psychological, Computational and Robotic\n Models

Abstract

Animals exploit time to survive in the world. Temporal information is\nrequired for higher-level cognitive abilities such as planning, decision\nmaking, communication, and effective cooperation. Since time is an inseparable\npart of cognition, there is a growing interest in the artificial intelligence\napproach to subjective time, which has a possibility of advancing the field.\nThe current survey study aims to provide researchers with an interdisciplinary\nperspective on time perception. Firstly, we introduce a brief background from\nthe psychology and neuroscience literature, covering the characteristics and\nmodels of time perception and related abilities. Secondly, we summarize the\nemergent computational and robotic models of time perception. A general\noverview to the literature reveals that a substantial amount of timing models\nare based on a dedicated time processing like the emergence of a clock-like\nmechanism from the neural network dynamics and reveal a relationship between\nthe embodiment and time perception. We also notice that most models of timing\nare developed for either sensory timing (i.e. ability to assess an interval) or\nmotor timing (i.e. ability to reproduce an interval). The number of timing\nmodels capable of retrospective timing, which is the ability to track time\nwithout paying attention, is insufficient. In this light, we discuss the\npossible research directions to promote interdisciplinary collaboration in the\nfield of time perception.\n