A window on Subjective Time

Our subjective sense of time is one of the most elusive yet constant factors of our mental lives. What is our sense of time like, and what is it good for? In this thesis, a theoretical account is developed that suggests that subjective time is like looking outside of the window of a moving train. Information is encoded at one side of the window, slided to the other end, until it drops outside of the window, forgotten. Laying the groundwork for this view, the first chapter reviews evidence that our subjective sense of time can tune the speed of cognitive processes, which can be viewed as shrinking or broadening our subjective window of time. In the second chapter, a neurocomputational model is developed that embodies this principle, while accounting for a wealth of phenomena in time perception. In the last chapters, the idea is tested that subjective time can tune the speed of encoding and forgetting in working memory. Indeed, when expecting little time for viewing a stimulus, humans can speed up their encoding. Conversely, when they expect that they need to remember a stimulus briefly, they can speed up their forgetting. In sum, the theoretical principles and empirical phenomena presented in this thesis suggests that our subjective sense of time constitutes a central mechanism that keeps us in pace with our surroundings.