Editing Arrow of time (section)

=== Psychological/perceptual arrow of time ===
{{Main|Time perception}}

A related mental arrow arises because one has the sense that one's perception is a continuous movement from the known past to the unknown future. This phenomenon has two aspects: ''[[memory]]'' (we remember the past but not the future) and ''[[volition (psychology)|volition]]'' (we feel we can influence the future but not the past). The two aspects are a consequence of the causal arrow of time: past events (but not future events) are the cause of our present memories, as more and more correlations are formed between the outer world and our brain (see [[Entropy (arrow of time)#Correlations|correlations and the arrow of time]]); and our present volitions and actions are causes of future events. This is because the increase of entropy is thought to be related to increase of both correlations between a system and its surroundings<ref name=elv/> and of the overall complexity, under an appropriate definition;<ref>Ladyman, J.; Lambert, J.; Weisner, K.B. What is a Complex System? Eur. J. Philos. Sci. 2013, 3, 33–67.</ref> thus all increase together with time.

Past and future are also psychologically associated with additional notions. [[English language|English]], along with other languages, tends to associate the past with "behind" and the future with "ahead", with expressions such as "to look forward to welcoming you", "to look back to the good old times", or "to be years ahead". However, this association of "behind ⇔ past" and "ahead ⇔ future" is culturally determined.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Ulrich|first1=Rolf|last2=Eikmeier|first2=Verena|last3=de la Vega|first3=Irmgard|last4=Ruiz Fernández|first4=Susana|last5=Alex-Ruf|first5=Simone|last6=Maienborn|first6=Claudia|date=2012-04-01|title=With the past behind and the future ahead: Back-to-front representation of past and future sentences|journal=Memory & Cognition|language=en|volume=40|issue=3|pages=483–495|doi=10.3758/s13421-011-0162-4|pmid=22160871|issn=1532-5946|doi-access=free}}</ref> For example, the [[Aymara language idiosyncrasies|Aymara language]] associates "ahead ⇔ past" and "behind ⇔ future" both in terms of terminology and gestures, corresponding to the past being observed and the future being unobserved.<ref>{{Cite web |title=(6/13/2006) For Andes Tribe, It's Back To The Future |url=http://www.albionmonitor.com/0606a/aymara.html |access-date=2023-09-13 |website=www.albionmonitor.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Núñez |first1=Rafael E. |last2=Sweetser |first2=Eve |title=With the Future Behind Them: Convergent Evidence From Aymara Language and Gesture in the Crosslinguistic Comparison of Spatial Construals of Time |url=http://www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/~nunez/web/FINALpblshd.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200121131545/http://www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/%7Enunez/web/FINALpblshd.pdf |archive-date=21 January 2020 |access-date=8 March 2020 |website=Department of Cognitive Science, University of California at San Diego}}</ref> Similarly, the [[Chinese language|Chinese]] term for "the day after tomorrow" 後天 ("hòutiān") literally means "after (or behind) day", whereas "the day before yesterday" 前天 ("qiántiān") is literally "preceding (or in front) day", and Chinese speakers spontaneously gesture in front for the past and behind for the future, although there are conflicting findings on whether they perceive the [[Ego (Freudian)|ego]] to be in front of or behind the past.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Gu|first1=Yan|last2=Zheng|first2=Yeqiu|last3=Swerts|first3=Marc|date=2019|title=Which Is in Front of Chinese People, Past or Future? The Effect of Language and Culture on Temporal Gestures and Spatial Conceptions of Time|journal=Cognitive Science|language=en|volume=43|issue=12|pages=e12804|doi=10.1111/cogs.12804|issn=1551-6709|pmc=6916330|pmid=31858627}}</ref><ref>[https://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=day+before+yesterday mbdg.net Chinese-English Dictionary] — accessed 2017-01-11</ref> There are no languages that place the past and future on a [[x-axis|left–right axis]] (e.g., there is no expression in English such as ''*the meeting was moved to the left''), although at least English speakers associate the past with the left and the future with the right, which seems to have its origin in the left-to-right writing system.<ref name=":0" />

The words "yesterday" and "tomorrow" both translate to the same word in [[Hindi]]: कल ("kal"),<ref>{{cite book|last=Bahri|first=Hardev|title=Learners' Hindi-English Dictionary|year=1989|publisher=Rajpal & Sons|location=Delhi|isbn=978-81-7028-002-6|page=95}}</ref> meaning "[one] day remote from today."<ref>{{cite book|last=Alexiadou|first=Artemis|title=Adverb placement: a case study in antisymmetric syntax|year=1997|publisher=Benjamins|location=Amsterdam [u.a.]|isbn=978-90-272-2739-3|page=108}}</ref> The ambiguity is resolved by verb tense. परसों ("parson") is used for both "day before yesterday" and "day after tomorrow", or "two days from today".<ref>[http://hindi-english.org/index.php?input=%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%82&trans=Translate&direction=AU Hindi-English.org Hindi English Dictionary परसों] — accessed 2017-01-11</ref>

तरसों ("tarson") is used for "three days from today"<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://shabdkosh.raftaar.in/Meaning-of-%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%82-in-Hindi#gsc.tab=0 |title=Meaning of तरसों in Hindi &#124; Hindi meaning of तरसों (तरसों ka Hindi Matlab) |access-date=2021-09-11 |archive-date=2021-09-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911213835/https://shabdkosh.raftaar.in/Meaning-of-%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%82-in-Hindi#gsc.tab=0 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and नरसों ("narson") is used for "four days from today".

The other side of the psychological passage of time is in the realm of volition and action. We plan and often execute actions intended to affect the course of events in the future. From the [[Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam|Rubaiyat]]:
<blockquote>
<poem>
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
  Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit.
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
  Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
</poem>
— [[Omar Khayyam]] (translation by [[Edward FitzGerald (poet)|Edward Fitzgerald]]).
</blockquote>

In June 2022, researchers reported<ref name="2022-06-22_PRL">{{Cite journal |last1=Lynn |first1=Christopher W. |last2=Holmes |first2=Caroline M. |last3=Bialek |first3=William |last4=Schwab |first4=David J. |date=2022-09-06 |title=Decomposing the Local Arrow of Time in Interacting Systems |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=129 |issue=11 |pages=118101 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.118101|pmid=36154397 |pmc=9751844 |arxiv=2112.14721 |bibcode=2022PhRvL.129k8101L }}</ref> in ''[[Physical Review Letters]]'' finding that [[salamander]]s were demonstrating [[counter-intuitive]] responses to the arrow of time in how their eyes perceived different stimuli.{{clarify|date=June 2023}}