When causality shapes the experience of time: Evidence for temporal binding in young children

It is well established that the temporal proximity of two events is a fundamental cue to causality. Recent research with adults has shown that this relation is bidirectional: events that are believed to be causally related are perceived as occurring closer together in time—the so‐called temporal binding effect. Here, we examined the developmental origins of temporal binding. Participants predicted when an event that was either caused by a button press, or preceded by a non‐causal signal, would occur. We demonstrate for the first time that children as young as 4 years are susceptible to temporal binding. Binding occurred both when the button press was executed via intentional action, and when a machine caused it. These results suggest binding is a fundamental, early developing property of perception and grounded in causal knowledge. A video of this article can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQC_MqjxZQQ We examined temporal binding in children between 4 and 9 years and found that children ‐‐ like adults ‐‐ demonstrate relatively early awareness of events that are preceded by causes compared to events that are merely signalled by an equally reliable predictor. This is true both when children caused the event themselves (by pressing a button to launch a rocket on the computer screen ) or when they observe a machine causing the event (a robot arm pressing the same button).