Abstract
Placing the future center stage as a way of understanding cognition is gaining attention in psychology. The general modern label for this is “prospection” which refers to the process of representing and thinking about possible future states of the world. Several theorists have claimed that episodic and prospective memory, as well as hypothetical thinking (mental simulation) and conditional reasoning are necessary cognitive faculties that enable prospection. Given the limitations in current empirical efforts connecting these faculties to prospection, the aim of this mini review is to argue that the findings show that they are sufficient, but not necessary for prospection. As a result, the short concluding section gives an outline of an alternative conceptualization of prospection. The proposal is that the critical characteristics of prospection are the discovery of, and maintenance of goals via causal learning.
Highlights
Prospection refers to the process of representing and planning for possible future states of the world (Buckner and Carroll, 2007; Gilbert and Wilson, 2007; Suddendorf and Corballis, 2007; Seligman et al, 2013)
POINT 1: COGNITIVE REQUIREMENTS OF PROSPECTION Many theorists (Buckner and Carroll, 2007; Gilbert and Wilson, 2007; McDaniel and Einstein, 2007; Schacter et al, 2007; Suddendorf and Corballis, 2007) claim that episodic memory and prospective memory are essential for prospective cognition
Prospective memory is the tagging of intentions onto episodic representations; the intentions to act may connect to a specific future context or to a specific future time interval (McDaniel and Einstein, 2007)
Summary
Biological and Experimental Psychology Group, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK. Reviewed by: Thorsten Meiser, University of Mannheim, Germany Joseph Krummenacher, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, Germany. Placing the future center stage as a way of understanding cognition is gaining attention in psychology. Several theorists have claimed that episodic and prospective memory, as well as hypothetical thinking (mental simulation) and conditional reasoning are necessary cognitive faculties that enable prospection. Given the limitations in current empirical efforts connecting these faculties to prospection, the aim of this mini review is to argue that the findings show that they are sufficient, but not necessary for prospection. The short concluding section gives an outline of an alternative conceptualization of prospection. The proposal is that the critical characteristics of prospection are the discovery of, and maintenance of goals via causal learning
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