Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Consciousness and Cognition journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/concog Review article A standard conceptual framework for the study of subjective time Sven Thönes a,b, ⁎ , Kurt Stocker c,d,e a Experimental Psychology, Department of Psychology, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany b Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors, Dortmund, Germany c Department of Psychology, University of Zürich, Switzerland d Chair of Cognitive Science, ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich, Switzerland e Swiss Distance Learning University, Faculty of Psychology, Brig, Switzerland ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Subjective time Time perception Time passage Duration Temporal processing Concepts ABSTRACT Research on the mental representation of time (‘subjective time’) has provided broad insights into the nature of time perception and temporal processing. As the field comprises different scientific disciplines, such as psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience, studies differ with regard to the basic terms and concepts used. For this reason, research on subjective time lacks a coherent conceptual system. We argue that research in the field of subjective time should aim at estab- lishing such a system, i.e., a more standardized terminology, in order to strengthen its theoretical basis and to support an efficient communication of results. Based on key empirical findings and concepts that are commonly (but inconsistently) used in the literature, we argue for a conceptual framework for the study of subjective time that differentiates between three types of mental representations of time: basic temporal processing, time perception in terms of passage, and time perception in terms of duration. 1. Introduction Over the last decades, the study of time has gained increasing attention in the cognitive sciences. Extensive empirical research has provided broad insights into the determinants of the perception and processing of time, its links to attention and memory, as well as its neural underpinnings (see Buhusi & Meck, 2005; Grondin, 2010; Matthews & Meck, 2016, for recent reviews). However, the study of subjective time still lacks a coherent conceptual system and authors do not always agree on the meaning and the relations of specific concepts, such as time perception, temporal processing, and time passage. And yet, generally accepted definitions and clear concepts are needed to provide the required theoretical basis for systematic empirical research and efficient communication of research findings. In the present article, we do not extensively review past empirical results, neither do we aim at testing or modifying specific neural or cognitive models of timing and time perception. Based on key empirical findings and concepts that are commonly (but inconsistently) used in the literature 1 , this article aims at developing a standard conceptual framework for the study of subjective https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2019.04.004 Received 27 August 2018; Received in revised form 9 April 2019; Accepted 11 April 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Psychology (Section Experimental Psychology), Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Wallstr. 3, 55122 Mainz, Germany. E-mail addresses: thoenes@uni-mainz.de (S. Thönes), kurt.stocker@psychologie.uzh.ch (K. Stocker). 1 In fact, sometimes papers written by experienced authors describe time with language that can be misunderstood leading to confusion. For example, a well-known article about temporal judgements with “Time Flies…”in its title is not – as one might expect – about passage of time judgements, but about duration judgments (Gil & Droit-Volet, 2011) (for a second example, see, Droit-Volet, Bigand, Ramos, & Bueno, 2010). Therefore, it is not surprising that it is difficult for people starting out in the field, or casual readers to carefully consider the differences between the aspects of duration and passage, for example. Consciousness and Cognition 71 (2019) 114–122 1053-8100/ © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. T