An adaptive-problem structure framework for survival relevance in temporal processing

Abstract

Research on survival-relevant cues and subjective time often groups stimuli into immediate-survival, reproductive, and social categories. These labels do not explain why cues within one category recruit different temporal processes across contexts and perceivers. The Adaptive-Problem Structure (APS) Framework characterizes the adaptive problem indicated by a cue through two separable appraisals: ecological urgency, the time sensitivity and cost of delaying a response, and interpretive indeterminacy, the extent to which adaptive meaning and the appropriate response remain unresolved. APS predicts when these appraisals recruit established arousal, attention, information-sampling, and memory processes, how diagnostic context changes those links, and which personality differences strengthen them. Temporal consequences depend on the timing paradigm, interval, and response format. We outline independent ratings, selective within-domain manipulations, process measures, and staged construct validation. Five predictions specify task conditions, personality mappings, comparison baselines, and non-supporting outcomes. APS offers testable constraints on mechanism recruitment and prediction for new stimuli; the framework itself remains to be empirically validated.