Retrospective and Prospective Timing: Memory, Attention, and Consciousness

Abstract

Abstract For millions of years, organisms have been products of evolution, gradually becoming increasingly adapted to their changing environments. Plants regulate their metabolism according to seasons, daily rhythms, and weather. Animals regulate their behaviour according to temporal constraints as well. Their nervous systems, down to at least planarians if not more simple organisms, have evolved to time events. However, only in the last several hundred years have humans consciously developed various external timing mechanisms, including four different kinds of chronometers (Roberts, 1998). This reflects the needs of humans for accurate timing that is not provided by natural mechanisms.