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Bashiri M, Zakeri M. The continuity of consciousness and the extensional model of temporal experiences. Advances in Cognitive Sciences 2025; 26 (4) :64-75
URL: http://icssjournal.ir/article-1-1788-en.html

This paper delves into the concept of continuity of consciousness, differentiating between three aspects of consciousness: State, content, and stream of consciousness. The paper debates two main senses of continuity: moderate continuity, requiring no gaps in the flow, and strong continuity, demanding a phenomenal connection between each experiential phase. The present study argues against strong continuity due to limitations of introspection and evidence like saccadic suppression, where the visual process is suppressed during rapid eye movements. To compare different models of temporal experiences in explaining the continuity of the stream of consciousness, this research briefly examines the issue of temporal experiences. It focuses on the direct and immediate perceptual experience of properties and relationships that are extended in time. Two opposing models have been presented: The snapshot model suggests we experience the world in static snapshots and infer succession and order later, while the specious present models propose a direct experience of temporally extended properties and ralations. The paper focuses on the “specious present”, a brief period where we can perceive non-simultaneous events as unified. Two models explain its structure: The retentional model suggests temporally extended contents represented by a short-lived experience. In contrast, content’s temporal structure matches the experience’s temporal structure. According to Dainton, the overlap model effectively explains the perceived continuity of the stream based on co-consciousness and overlapping experiential parts. It is argued
that his model wrongly assumes strong continuity, and even if his assumption is valid, his conclusion is controversial. Finally, only from the point of view of the continuity of consciousness are the models of temporal experiences equal in their explanation.