Optimal timing

- We describe some timing results within the framework of optimality.
- Time estimation is described as an inference problem.
- Timed responding is described as a decision-making problem.

In recent years, there has been a growing attempt to evaluate time perception and timed behavior against an optimal benchmark. What does an optimal timer look like? And how does one behave? In the first part of the review, we give some preliminary evidence to suggest animals build a generative model of elapsed time. In the second part of the review, we give some preliminary evidence that animals estimate their own timing measurement error, and compute the statistically optimal response time constrained by this error. Lastly, we discuss the optimal timing framework as an alternative language in which to think about behavior.