About this Event
What is time? To that we all have a standard answer, which is the clock, the sunrise, the “physical time”; but how about this question: What is time like to you?
Cognitive scientists often investigate this question through spatial metaphors, arguing that we understand time by mapping it onto movement through space. One influential example is the "Next Wednesday Question," a deceptively simple thought experiment that has generated decades of research on temporal perspective and cognition.
In this talk, I examine what such experiments actually measure and whether they can capture the structure of lived temporality. Drawing on work in cognitive science, phenomenology, and philosophy of mind, I explore tensions between experimental findings that portray temporal perspective as both highly flexible and remarkably stable across individuals, cultures, and contexts. I then consider how phenomenological accounts of time-consciousness, particularly those of Husserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Sartre, may offer an alternative framework for understanding these findings.
Rather than treating temporal experience as something constructed through spatial metaphors alone, this talk asks what might be revealed when we begin from lived experience itself, and what this means for future research on temporal cognition.
Rundong Wang is an undergraduate student in Cognitive Systems (C with a minor in Philosophy at the University of British Columbia. He is a research assistant in the Vision Lab and the Interactive Mind and Movement Lab at UBC. His research interests lie at the intersection of cognitive science and phenomenology, with a particular focus on embodied & enacted cognition, perception, attention, and action. His recent work has explored action perception mechanisms in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and facial ensemble perception.
This is THE lecture to be at!
📍 Koerner's Pub - 1758 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2
🕕 Monday, June 8, 2026, 5:00 PM PDT
Doors open at 5:00 PM PDT. Lecture begins at 5:30 PM.
Please Note: This event will be video and audio recorded.
***Please Note that tickets are nonrefundable.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Koerner's Pub, 1758 West Mall, Vancouver, Canada
CAD 6.66
