Shared cognitive processes underlying past and future thinking: The impact of imagery and concurrent task demands on event specificity.

Anderson, Rachel J.; Dewhurst, Stephen A.; Nash, Robert A.; Anderson, Rachel; Dewhurst, Stephen; Nash, Robert

Abstract

Recent literature has argued that whereas remembering the past and imagining the future make use of shared cognitive substrates, simulating future events places heavier demands on executive resources. These propositions were explored in 3 experiments comparing the impact of imagery and concurrent task demands on speed and accuracy of past event retrieval and future event simulation. Results provide support for the suggestion that both past and future episodes can be constructed through 2 mechanisms: a noneffortful "direct" pathway and a controlled, effortful "generative" pathway. However, limited evidence emerged for the suggestion that simulating of future, compared with retrieving past, episodes places heavier demands on executive resources; only under certain conditions did it emerge as a more error prone and lengthier process. The findings are discussed in terms of how retrieval and simulation make use of the same cognitive substrates in subtly different ways.

Citation

Anderson, R., Dewhurst, S., & Nash, R. (2012). Shared cognitive processes underlying past and future thinking: The impact of imagery and concurrent task demands on event specificity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(2), 356-365. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025451

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2012
• Deposit Date: Nov 13, 2014
• Journal: Journal Of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory And Cognition
• Print ISSN: 0278-7393
• Publisher: American Psychological Association
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 38
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 356-365
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0025451
• Keywords: REF 2014 submission!
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/463931
• Contract Date: Nov 13, 2014