A Cognitive Model of a Temporal Binding Task

Temporal binding (TB) is the subjective compression between a voluntary action and its associated outcome. It is regarded as an implicit measure of the sense of agency; however, an underlying mechanism has yet to be agreed upon. Previous research suggests memory as an alternative explanation for TB in two publicly available datasets. Here, we test this idea by implementing a model within the ACT-R cognitive architecture and leveraging its existing memory and time perception mechanisms to simulate participants from these datasets. Our model simulations provide evidence to suggest that memory and time perception mechanisms can explain the pattern of results. Implications for temporal binding and the sense of agency will be discussed.