Reconstructing the times of past and future personal events
Humans have the remarkable ability to mentally travel through past and future times. However, while memory for the times of past events has been much investigated, little is known about how imagined future events are temporally located. Using a think-aloud protocol, we found that the
temporal location of past and future events is rarely directly accessed, but instead mostly relies on reconstructive and inferential strategies. References to lifetime periods and factual knowledge (about the self, others, and the world) were most frequently used to determine the temporal
location of both past and future events. Event details (e.g., places, persons, or weather conditions) were also used, but mainly for past events. Finally, the results showed that events whose temporal location was directly accessed were judged more important for personal goals. Together, these
findings shed new light on the mechanisms involved in locating personal events in past and future times.
Keywords: Time; autobiographical memory; episodic future thinking; goals
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychology, Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium 2: Department of Psychiatry, Inserm U1114 – Cognitive Neuropsychology and Pathophysiology of Schizophrenia, Strasbourg, France
Publication date: 26 November 2017
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