Causal Beliefs and Perception of Temporal Order: The ‘Reordering Effect’

Abstract

Empirical research on the relationship between temporality and causation is mostly dominated by the question of how temporal information constrains causal cognition. However, Bechlivanidis and Lagnado (2013, Psychol. Sci., 24, 1563–1572; 2016, Cognition, 146, 58–66) recently claimed to have discovered the ‘reordering effect’, in which causal beliefs have an influence on perception of temporal order. This paper argues for an attentional interpretation of this effect and suggests a solution to the circularity that arises from the mutual constraint between causal assumptions and perception of temporal order. Finally, it is shown how the reordering effect may challenge certain philosophical accounts of temporal illusions.