Formation and representation of temporal reference information

- Temporal judgments are affected by context and history of stimulation.
- The concept of internal references provides an explanation for such effects.
- Current models incorporating internal references are outlined.
- Guiding questions for future research are provided and discussed.

We review psychophysical studies on temporal judgments which demonstrate that these judgments not only depend on current stimulation but also on task-irrelevant context information and the history of stimulus input. Consequently, models that take only current stimulation into account (e.g., the standard difference model) are incapable to explain these extraneous influences. However, models that incorporate the concept of internal references can account for several of these influences. Typical models from this class are the internal reference model, Bayesian inference, memory mixing, and sensation weighting. Further research is needed to elucidate the general properties of internal references. For this purpose, we provide questions that might guide future empirical investigation and thus shape theoretical advances in the field.