Now or never: How consciousness represents time

Complementarity of Space and Time in Distance Representations

“…In that sense, longer duration leads to a phenomenon based on working memory, which encloses a sequence of experienced moments for the representation of mental presence (Wittmann, 2011). Consequently, our momentary experience of nowness is likely to be embedded in a temporal field that stretches across time reaching both into the past and into the future (Droege, 2009). 8 The question of perceptual temporal threshold was originally raised by William James, who asked "What is the minimum amount of duration which we can distinctly feel?"…”

“…It is noteworthy that while for Bergson the involvement in the past conflicted with present activity, for Husserl past and futurity in the temporal experience are fully reconcilable within the framework of subjective present. From this outlook, it is ultimately the present that embraces all aspects of temporality (see also Droege, 2009).…”

“…A number of conceptual models have been proposed to solve the paradox how it is possible to perceive duration, when our experiences of time are confined to the present moment (see Droege, 2009;Dainton, 2010a). Findings in cognitive neuroscience and psychophysics indicate that time perception operates at three basic levels termed temporal windows (Pöppel, 2009;Wittmann, 2011).…”

Present moment, past, and future: mental kaleidoscope

“…Following Droege (2009) we could state that consciousness has a peculiar affinity for presence . Some researchers even argue that conscious awareness necessarily demands that mental content is somehow held “frozen” within a discrete progressive present moment (James, 1890; Lynds, 2003).…”

“…By this definition even remembering the past images and planning the future events can't be performed other than in the present moment and in relation to current state of affairs (see also Lynds, 2003; Droege, 2009). This is so because someone possesses phenomenal consciousness if there is any type of subjective experiences that is currently present for him/her (Fingelkurts et al, 2010).…”