Windows on Time: Unlocking the Temporal Microstructure of Experience (Wilson 2022)

Keith A. Wilson, Postdoctoral Researcher on the ‘Perceiving Representations’ project, has published a paper on ‘Windows on Time: Unlocking the Temporal Microstructure of Experience’ in The Review of Philosophy and Psychology.

Abstract

Each of our sensory modalities—vision, touch, taste, etc.—works on a slightly different timescale, with differing temporal resolutions and processing lag. This raises the question of how, or indeed whether, these sensory streams are co-ordinated or ‘bound’ into a coherent multisensory experience of the perceptual ‘now’.

In this paper I evaluate one account of how temporal binding is achieved: the temporal windows hypothesis, concluding that, in its simplest form, this hypothesis is inadequate to capture a variety of multisensory phenomena. Rather, the evidence suggests the existence of a more complex temporal structure in which multiple overlapping windows support distinct functional mechanisms.

To aid in the precise formulation of such views, I propose a taxonomy of temporal window types and their characteristics that in turn suggests promising avenues for future empirical and philosophical research. I conclude by examining some philosophical implications of multi-window models for the metaphysics of perception and perceptual experience more generally.
 

Wilson, Keith A. (2022). ‘Windows on Time: Unlocking the Temporal Microstructure of Experience’. Review of Philosophy and Psychology. DOI: 10.1007/s13164-022-00632-2 (Open Access)

By Keith Wilson
Published May 24, 2022 10:30 AM - Last modified Sep. 27, 2023 8:42 AM