Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Feeling the future: prospects for a theory of implicit prospection

  • Published:
Biology & Philosophy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Mental time travel refers to the ability of an organism to project herself backward and forward in time, using episodic memory and imagination to simulate past and future experiences. The evolution of mental time travel gives humans a unique capacity for prospection: the ability to pre-experience the future. Discussions of mental time travel treat it as an instance of explicit prospection. We argue that implicit simulations of past and future experience can also be used as a way of gaining information about the future to shape preferences and guide behaviour.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Addis DR, Wong AT, Schacter DL (2007) Remembering the past and imagining the future: common and distinct neural substrates during event construction and elaboration. Neuropsychologia 45(7):1363–1377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauer RM (1984) Autonomic recognition of names and faces in prosopagnosia: a neuropsychological application of the guilty knowledge test. Neuropsychologia 22:457–469

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bauer RM (1986) The cognitive psychophysiology of prosopagnosia. In: Ellis HD, Jeeves MA, Newcombe F, Young A (eds) Aspects of face processing. Martinus Nijhoff, Dordrecht, pp 253–267

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bechara A, Tranel D, Damasio H, Damasio AR (1996) Failure to respond autonomically to anticipated future outcomes following damage to prefrontal cortex. Cereb Cortex 6(2):215–225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowman CH, Evans CE, Turnbull OH (2005) Artificial time constraints on the Iowa gambling task: the effects on behavioural performance and subjective experience. Brain Cognit 57(1):21–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brass M, Heyes C (2005) Imitation: is cognitive neuroscience solving the correspondence problem? Trends Cognit Sci 9(10):489–495

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breen N, Caine D, Coltheart M, Hendy J, Roberts C (2000) Towards an understanding of delusions of misidentification. Mind Lang 15:74–110

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Breen N, Coltheart M, Caine D (2001) A two-way window on face recognition. Trends Cognit Sci 5:234–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buckner RL, Carroll DC (2007) Self-projection and the brain. Trends Cognit Sci 11(2):49–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Busby J, Suddendorf T (2005) Recalling yesterday and predicting tomorrow. Cognit Dev 20:362–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Call J, Tomasello M (2008) Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? 30 years later. Trends Cognit Sci 12(5):187–192

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christoff K, Gordon AM, Smallwood J, Smith R, Schooler JW (2009) Experience sampling during fMRI reveals default network and executive system contributions to mind wandering. Proc Natl Acad Sci 106(21):8719–8724

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clayton NS, Dickinson A (1998) Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays. Nature 395(6699):272–274

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clayton NS, Bussey TJ, Dickinson A (2003) Can animals recall the past and plan for the future? Nat Rev Neurosci 4:685–691

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crone EA, Somsen RJ, Van Beek B, Van Der Molen MW (2004) Heart rate and skin conductance analysis of antecendents and consequences of decision making. Psychophysiology 41(4):531–540

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dally JM, Emery NJ, Clayton NS (2006) Food-caching western scrub-jays keep track of who was watching when. Science 312(5780):1662–1665

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Damasio AR, Tranel D, Damasio H (1991) Somatic markers and the guidance of behaviour: theory and preliminary testing. In: Levin HS, Eisenberg HM, Benton AL (eds) Frontal lobe function and dysfunction. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 217–229

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies M (1987) Tacit knowledge and semantic theory mind. Mind 96:441–462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Haan EHF, Young A, Newcombe F (1987a) Faces interfere with name classification in a prosopagnosic patient. Cortex 2:309–316

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Haan EHF, Young A, Newcombe F (1987b) Face recognition without awareness. Cognit Neuropsychol 4:385–415

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Degonda N, Mondadori CR, Bosshardt S, Schmidt CF, Boesiger P, Nitsch RM, Hock C, Henke K (2005) Implicit associative learning engages the hippocampus and interacts with explicit associative learning. Neuron 46(3):505–520

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delazer M, Benke T (1999) Arithmetic reasoning and implicit memory. Brain Cognit 40:94–97

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunn BD, Dalgleish T, Lawrence AD (2006) The somatic marker hypothesis: a critical evaluation. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 239–271(30):239–271

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fair DA, Cohen AL, Dosenbach NU, Church JA, Miezin FM, Barch DM, Schlaggar BL (2008) The maturing architecture of the brain’s default network. Proc Natl Acad Sci 105(10):4028–4032

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garon N, Bryson SE, Smith IM (2008) Executive function in preschoolers: a review using an integrative framework. Psychol Bull 134(1):31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greicius MD, Krasnow B, Reiss AL, Menon V (2003) Functional connectivity in the resting brain: a network analysis of the default mode hypothesis. Proc Natl Acad Sci 100(1):253–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hassabis D, Maguire EA (2007) Deconstructing episodic memory with construction. Trends Cognit Sci 11(7):299–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hauser MD (2006) The liver and the moral organ. Soc Cognit Affect Neurosci 1(3):214–220

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heyes CM (1998) Theory of mind in nonhuman primates. Behav Brain Sci 21(1):101–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Heyes C (2010) Where do mirror neurons come from? Neurosci Biobehav Rev 34(4):575–583

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koechlin E, Summerfield C (2007) An information theoretical approach to prefrontal executive function. Trends Cognit Sci 11(6):229–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leslie AM (1994) Pretending and believing: issues in the theory of ToMM. Cognition 50:211–238

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maia TV, McClelland JL (2004) A reexamination of the evidence for the somatic marker hypothesis: what participants really know in the Iowa gambling task. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 101(45):16075–16080

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maia TV, McClelland JL (2005) The somatic marker hypothesis: still many questions but no answers. Trends Cognit Sci 9(4):162–164

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mason MF, Norton MI, Van Horn JD, Wegner DM, Grafton ST, Macrae CN (2007) Wandering minds: the default network and stimulus-independent thought. Science 315(5810):393–395

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts WA, Feeney MC (2009) The comparative study of mental time travel. Trends Cognit Sci 13(6):271–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ruffman T (2000) Nonverbal theory of mind: is it important, is it implicit, is it simulation, is it relevant to autism. In Astington JW (ed) Minds in the making: essays in honor of David R. Olson. pp 250–266

  • Sarnecka BW, Carey S (2008) How counting represents number: what children must learn and when they learn it. Cognition 108(3):662–674

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schacter DL, Addis DR (2007) The cognitive neuroscience of constructive memory: remembering the past and imagining the future. Philos Trans Royal Soc B: Biol Sci 362(1481):773–786

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schacter DL, Addis DR, Buckner RL (2007) Remembering the past to imagine the future: the prospective brain. Nat Rev Neurosci 8(9):657–661

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schweinberger SR, Burton AM (2003) Covert recognition and the neural system for face processing. Cortex 39(1):9–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shettleworth SJ (2010) Clever animals and killjoy explanations in comparative psychology. Trends Cognit Sci 14(11):477–481

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spreng RN, Mar RA, Kim AS (2009) The common neural basis of autobiographical memory, prospection, navigation, theory of mind, and the default mode: a quantitative meta-analysis. J Cognit Neurosci 21(3):489–510

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny K (2011) From hominins to humans: how sapiens became behaviourally modern. Philos Trans Royal Soc B: Biol Sci 366(1566):809–822

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stuss DT, Alexander MP (2000) Executive functions and the frontal lobes: a conceptual view. Psychol Res 63(3–4):289–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suddendorf T, Corballis MC (2007) The evolution of foresight: what is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? Beha Brain Sci 30(3):299–312

    Google Scholar 

  • Suddendorf T, Addis DR, Corballis MC (2009) Mental time travel and the shaping of the human mind. Philos Trans Royal Soc B: Biol Sci 364(1521):1317–1324

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Szpunar KK (2010) Episodic future thought an emerging concept. Perspect Psychol Sci 5(2):142–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tomb I, Hauser M, Deldin P, Caramazza A (2002) Do somatic markers mediate decisions on the gambling task? Nature Neuroscience 5(11), 1103–1104 (author reply 1104)

    Google Scholar 

  • Tranel D, Damasio AR (1988a) Knowledge without awareness: an autonomic index of facial recognition in prosopagnosics. Science 228:1453–1454

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tranel D, Damasio AR (1988b) Non-conscious face recognition in patients with face agnosia. Beha Brain Res 30:235–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tranel D, Damasio H, Damasio AR (1995) Double dissociation between overt and covert recognition. J Cognit Neurosci 7:425–432

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young AW (1994) Covert recognition. In: Farah M, Ratcligg G (eds) The neuropsychology of high-level vision: collected tutorial essays. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, pp 331–358

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelazo PD, Frye D (1998) Cognitive complexity and control: II. The development of executive function in childhood. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 7(4):121–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    Philip Gerrans & David Sander

  2. Department of Philosophy, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

    Philip Gerrans

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

    David Sander

Authors
  1. Philip Gerrans
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David Sander
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philip Gerrans.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gerrans, P., Sander, D. Feeling the future: prospects for a theory of implicit prospection. Biol Philos 29, 699–710 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-013-9408-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-013-9408-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation