Spontaneous future cognition: the past, present and future of an emerging topic

Cole, Scott N.; Kvavilashvili, Lia

doi:10.1007/s00426-019-01193-3

Cited by 46 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 146 publications

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“…Finally, it deserves mention that mental time travel can not only be initiated voluntarily but can also occur spontaneously (Berntsen, 2010(Berntsen, , 2019Christoff et al, 2016;Cole & Kvavilashvili, 2019;Smallwood & Schooler, 2015). Involuntary autobiographical memories and future thoughts are indeed common in everyday life (Berntsen & Jacobsen, 2008); when we are not entirely focused on a given task, personal goals, current concerns, and other autobiographical contents tend to spontaneously come to mind (Baird et al, 2011;Cole & Berntsen, 2016;Stawarczyk et al, 2011).…”

Section: Modes Of Mental Time Travelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zooming In and Out on One's Life: Autobiographical Representations at Multiple Time Scales

D’Argembeau

2020

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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The ability to decouple from the present environment and explore other times is a central feature of the human mind. Research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience has shown that the personal past and future is represented at multiple timescales and levels of resolution, from broad lifetime periods that span years to short-time slices of experience that span seconds. Here, I review this evidence and propose a theoretical framework for understanding mental time travel as the capacity to flexibly navigate hierarchical layers of autobiographical representations. On this view, past and future thoughts rely on two main systems—event simulation and autobiographical knowledge—that allow us to represent experiential contents that are decoupled from sensory input and to place these on a personal timeline scaffolded from conceptual knowledge of the content and structure of our life. The neural basis of this cognitive architecture is discussed, emphasizing the possible role of the medial pFC in integrating layers of autobiographical representations in the service of mental time travel.

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Section: Modes Of Mental Time Travelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Zooming In and Out on One's Life: Autobiographical Representations at Multiple Time Scales

D’Argembeau

2020

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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“…Drawing upon recent work, spontaneous future thinking is characterised here as automatic, fast and undirected (see Table 2) (Berntsen & Jacobsen, 2008;Finnbogadottir & Berntsen, 2011;; for a definition, see Berntsen, 2019; Cole & Kvavilashvili, 2019). As stated at the beginning of this article, the key question in future thinking research concerns the paradox of having fully-fledged episodic future thoughts in the absence of wilful constructive processes.…”

Section: Spontaneous Future Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spontaneous and deliberate future thinking: a dual process account

Cole

Kvavilashvili

2019

Psychological Research

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In this article, we address an apparent paradox in the literature on mental time travel and mind-wandering: How is it possible that future thinking is both constructive, yet often experienced as occurring spontaneously? We identify and describe two 'routes' whereby episodic future thoughts are brought to consciousness, with each of the 'routes' being associated with separable cognitive processes and functions. Voluntary future thinking relies on controlled, deliberate and slow cognitive processing. The other, termed involuntary or spontaneous future thinking, relies on automatic processes that allows 'fullyfledged' episodic future thoughts to freely come to mind, often triggered by internal or external cues. To unravel the paradox, we propose that the majority of spontaneous future thoughts are 'pre-made' (i.e., each spontaneous future thought is a reiteration of a previously constructed future event), and therefore based on simple, well-understood, memory processes. We also propose that the pre-made hypothesis explains why spontaneous future thoughts occur rapidly, are similar to involuntary memories, and predominantly about upcoming tasks and goals. We also raise the possibility that spontaneous future thinking is the default mode of imagining the future. This dual process approach complements and extends standard theoretical approaches that emphasise constructive simulation, and outlines novel opportunities for researchers examining voluntary and spontaneous forms of future thinking.

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“…Based on these inclusion criteria, the review of studies on mind-wandering and spontaneous future thinking (see Table 1), a newly emerging field within research on episodic future thinking (Berntsen, 2019; Cole & Kvavilashvili, 2019, 2020), provided strong support for the pragmatic theory of prospection, which considers planning as the most important and frequent form of episodic future thinking in the service of accomplishing one’s immediate needs and goals (Baumeister et al, 2016; Baumeister et al, 2018; D’Argembeau, 2016). In addition, several studies on prospective memory showed that just thinking about such upcoming tasks and plans enhances the likelihood of them being carried out in the future (e.g., Kvavilashvili & Fisher, 2007).…”

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confidence: 99%

On the Nature of Everyday Prospection: A Review and Theoretical Integration of Research on Mind-Wandering, Future Thinking, and Prospective Memory

Kvavilashvili

Rummel

2020

Review of General Psychology

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The ability to imagine and simulate events that may happen in the future has been studied in several related but independent research areas (e.g., episodic future thinking, mind-wandering, prospective memory), with a newly emerging field of involuntary future thinking focusing primarily on the spontaneous occurrence of such thoughts. In this article, we review evidence from these diverse fields to address important questions about why do people think about the future, what are the typical and most frequent contents of such thoughts, and how do these thoughts occur (are they spontaneous or constructed deliberately). Results of the literature review provide support for the pragmatic theory of prospection, by showing that when people engage in prospective thought naturally, without being explicitly instructed to do so, they predominantly think about their upcoming tasks and planned activities instead of simulating plausible but novel hypothetical scenarios. Moreover, prospective thoughts are more often spontaneous than deliberate and effortful, and their occurrence seems to increase the likelihood of planned activities being completed in the future. The findings are discussed in the context of a new “pragmatic dual process account” of future thinking, and new avenues for future research on prospection are outlined.

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Spontaneous future cognition: the past, present and future of an emerging topic

Cited by 46 publications

References 146 publications

Zooming In and Out on One's Life: Autobiographical Representations at Multiple Time Scales

Zooming In and Out on One's Life: Autobiographical Representations at Multiple Time Scales

Spontaneous and deliberate future thinking: a dual process account

On the Nature of Everyday Prospection: A Review and Theoretical Integration of Research on Mind-Wandering, Future Thinking, and Prospective Memory

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