The effects of spatial contextual familiarity on remembered scenes, episodic memories, and imagined future events.

Abstract

Several recent studies have explored the effect of contextual familiarity on remembered and imagined events. The aim of this study was to examine the extent of this effect by comparing the effect of cuing spatial memories, episodic memories, and imagined future events with spatial contextual cues of varying levels of familiarity. We used real-world landmark cues that had all been previously visited by the participants, and we measured the retrieval time, detail-richness, and vividness of remembered scenes, events, and imagined future events based on these cues. Participants consistently rated scenes and events based on more familiar cues as more detailed and more vivid, and they took less time to retrieve them. When the types of details were examined, it was revealed that the effects of increased contextual familiarity carry over to non-spatial details in the case of remembered events but possibly not in imagined events. This study provides evidence regarding how episodic memory and imagination are reliant on spatial context and possibly the process of scene construction.

Identifying the cognitive processes underpinning hippocampal-dependent tasks

“…We do not deny or diminish this relationship. However, in addition to autobiographical memory, scene construction and thinking about the future have also been associated with the hippocampus (Hassabis, Kumaran, Vann, et al, 2007;Schacter et al, 2012), and there are substantial overlaps in the behavioural correlates of autobiographical memory, scene construction and future thinking (D'Argembeau & Van der Linden, 2004;de Vito et al, 2012;Robin & Moscovitch, 2014). We suggest that our results allow us to start specifying more precisely why these similar, but different, cognitive processes are associated with the hippocampus.…”

“…When most people recall the past, imagine the future or plan a route during navigation, scenes feature prominently. An individual's ability to use scene imagery, or spatial context, to imagine or recall an event, has been shown to predict the vividness and detail of the imagined scenario (Arnold, McDermott, & Szpunar, 2011;D'Argembeau & Van der Linden, 2004;Hebscher, Levine, & Gilboa, 2017;Robin & Moscovitch, 2014;Robin, Wynn, & Moscovitch, 2016;Sheldon & Chu, 2017;Szpunar & McDermott, 2008).…”

The role of personal goals in autonoetic experience when imagining future events

“…Szpunar and McDermott (2008) investigated the influence of the familiarity of contextual settings in which imagined future events take place. The results showed that future events imagined in familiar settings (e.g., at home) were rated as more detailed and were associated with stronger feelings of pre-experience and mental time travel than events imagined in unfamiliar settings (e.g., in the jungle) (see also Robin & Moscovitch, 2014). Arnold, McDermott, and Szpunar (2011a) reported similar findings, and further showed that 1 A variety of terms has been proposed to refer to consciousness of subjective time, including autonoetic consciousness or autonoesis (Tulving, 2005), chronestesia (Tulving, 2002), and temporal consciousness (Dalla Barba & Boissé, 2010).…”

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex supports affective future simulation by integrating distributed knowledge

“…It thus augments episodic simulations with the richness of past experiences (56). Although prospection is not always accurate (57), and exaggerated or distorted future thinking may, in some cases, be detrimental to our well-being (58,59), the vmPFC offers a flexible mechanism that enables us to experience the merits and pitfalls of possible future episodes, thereby aiding farsighted decisions.…”