Time models and cognitive processes: a review

The sense of time is an essential capacity of humans, with a major role in many of the cognitive processes expressed in our daily lifes. So far, in cognitive science and robotics research, mental capacities have been investigated in a theoretical and modeling framework that largely neglects the flow of time. Only recently there has been a rather limited, but constantly increasing interest in the temporal aspects of cognition, integrating time into a range of different models of perceptuo-motor capacities. The current paper aims to review existing works in the field and suggest directions for fruitful future work. This is particularly important for the newly developed field of artificial temporal cognition that is expected to significantly contribute in the development of sophisticated artificial agents seamlessly integrated into human societies.