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........ published in NEWSLETTER # 47

TIME, ACTION AND COGNITION: TOWARDS BRIDGING THE GAP
by Dr. F. Macar, Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Marseille (France), Dr. V. Pouthas, Laboratory of Developmental Psychobiology, Paris (France), and Dr. W.J. Friedmann, Oberlin College, Oberlin OH (U.S.A.)

The number of models characterizing temporal information processing, from estimation and production of brief durations up to complex symbolizations and representations of time, has increased dramatically in recent years. Yet time psychologists tend to draw conclusions restricted to their specific fields of interest: development, motor behavior, attention, memory and representations. A NATO Advanced Research Workshop on `Time, Action and Cognition' was held in Saint_Maol, France, in October 1991, to provide a setting where international specialists could meet to address a common issue: the relationships between time in action and representations of time. The volume `Time, Action and Cognition: Towards bridging the gap' (NATO ASI SERIES D66) is the outcome of this NATO Workshop.

The structure of the volume closely parallels the thematic order of the workshop sessions. PartI is devoted to developmental research for the basic reason that the developmental perspective is thought to have direct bearing on the issues discussed in the other sections. PartII deals with temporal judgment, a topic which has not only been central to history of psychology of time but one which has also been the target of renewed interest in the last ten years because of the development of new theoretical and empirical approaches. PartIII deals with temporal mechanisms, in particular the internal clocks, the core issue in temporal judgment and action timing. PartIV approaches motor timing and explores the hypotheses put forward to account for this important aspect of motor performance. The issues raised in the first four parts form the backdrop of the complex questions discussed in PartV on representations of time. The final discussion closing the sessions reflects the progress made during the Workshop. The initial aim of bridging the gap between enacted time and represented time may not have been fulfilled, but by charting avenues to a more unified approach, one step forward in our understanding of time has been taken, and new directions for future research defined.
Reference books: D9, D10, D27, D36, D37, D38, D66, D69, F97

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