Origins of time: New insights into the psychological foundations of time

What are the origins of our ability to perceive and reason about time? The human experience of time is rich and multifaceted: low-level duration perception on the order of seconds; words (e.g. “hour”) and grammatical features (e.g. tense) that encode specific aspects of temporal experience; and high-level reasoning about duration, sequences, and causality. While some of these temporal abilities are present early in development (e.g. duration perception), others do not emerge for many years (e.g. the semantics of temporal words like “hour” or “yesterday”). There is an active debate about the origins of these varied facets of temporal cognition (e.g., Núñez & Cooperrider, 2013; Evans, 2013; Casasanto & Bottini, 2013). For instance, what are their evolutionary and developmental sources? Do certain temporal capacities distinguish us from non-human animals? Is our understanding of time built on a spatial foundation, or do both space and time rely on a shared, domain-general representational system? The time is ripe for an integrated approach to this foundational human capacity. This symposium brings together researchers whose work has presented varied perspectives on the psychological origins of time, from perception to conceptualization (e.g., Bender & Beller, in press; Casasanto & Bottini, 2013; Santiago et al, 2007; Núñez & Cooperrider, 2013; Boroditsky & Gaby, 2010). The researchers hail from a variety of backgrounds, including anthropology, linguistics, psychology, and cognitive science, and approach the origins of time from the perspective of human development, crosscultural variability, and cognitive processing. The five talks will discuss recent evidence from development, language, culture, and behavior, followed by a brief moderated discussion. Bender and Beller adopt a cross–cultural perspective to examine the role of frames of reference in the conceptualization of time. Marghetis, Tillman, Srinivasan, and Barner explore the development of spatial metaphors for time in children, focusing on spontaneous temporal gestures and their relation to the acquisition of temporal language. Santiago discusses the roles of culture and attention in shaping cross-cultural differences in the conceptualization of time. Walker, Bergen, and Núñez argue that different conceptual models are used for different kinds of temporal reasoning. Finally, Casasanto compares and contrasts existing theories of the origins of interactions between space and time. Boroditsky serves as moderator.