Autonoetic consciousness: Reconsidering the role of episodic memory in future-oriented self-projection

Following the seminal work of Ingvar (1985. “Memory for the future”: An essay on the temporal organization of conscious awareness. Human Neurobiology, 4, 127–136), Suddendorf (1994. The discovery of the fourth dimension: Mental time travel and human evolution. Master's thesis. University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand), and Tulving (1985. Memory and consciousness. Canadian Psychology/PsychologieCanadienne, 26, 1–12), exploration of the ability to anticipate and prepare for future contingencies that cannot be known with certainty has grown into a thriving research enterprise. A fundamental tenet of this line of inquiry is that future-oriented mental time travel, in most of its presentations, is underwritten by a property or an extension of episodic recollection. However, a careful conceptual analysis of exactly how episodic memory functions in this capacity has yet to be undertaken. In this paper I conduct such an analysis. Based on conceptual, phenomenological, and empirical considerations, I conclude that the autonoetic component of episodic memory, not episodic memory per se, is the causally determinative factor enabling an individual to project him or herself into a personal future.

[1]  Chu T'ien-wen,et al.  On Confessions , 2016 .

[2]  K. Szpunar,et al.  Seeing the future : theoretical perspectives on future-oriented mental time travel , 2016 .

[3]  M. Verfaellie,et al.  Personal semantic memory: Insights from neuropsychological research on amnesia , 2014, Neuropsychologia.

[4]  R. S. Rosenbaum,et al.  Individuals with episodic amnesia are not stuck in time , 2014, Neuropsychologia.

[5]  Morris Moscovitch,et al.  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Case Studies Continue to Illuminate the Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory , 2022 .

[6]  S. Klein,et al.  Autonoesis and Belief in a Personal Past: An Evolutionary Theory of Episodic Memory Indices , 2014 .

[7]  S. Klein,et al.  Sameness and the self: philosophical and psychological considerations , 2014, Front. Psychol..

[8]  Jessica A. Sommerville,et al.  Assessing the role of memory in preschoolers' performance on episodic foresight tasks , 2014, Memory.

[9]  Eleanor A. Maguire,et al.  Scene construction in developmental amnesia: An fMRI study , 2014, Neuropsychologia.

[10]  S. Klein.  The temporal orientation of memory: It's time for a change of direction , 2013 .

[11]  Thomas Suddendorf,et al.  The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals , 2013 .

[12]  E. Denkova,et al.  Autobiographical significance in past and future public semantic memory: A case-study , 2013, Cortex.

[13]  E. Maguire,et al.  The Hippocampus: A Manifesto for Change , 2013, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[14]  Pascale Piolino,et al.  Neural substrates of the self‐memory system: New insights from a meta‐analysis , 2013, Human brain mapping.

[15]  Hans J. Markowitsch,et al.  The impairment of recollection in functional amnesic states , 2013, Cortex.

[16]  Douwe Draaisma,et al.  Permanent Present Tense : The Unforgettable Life of the Amnesic Patient, HM , 2013 .

[17]  Suzanne Corkin,et al.  Permanent Present Tense: The Unforgettable Life of the Amnesic Patient, H. M. , 2013 .

[18]  Sven Bestmann,et al.  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Combined Neurostimulation and Neuroimaging in Cognitive Neuroscience: Past, Present, and Future , 2022 .

[19]  O. Piguet,et al.  The Pivotal Role of Semantic Memory in Remembering the Past and Imagining the Future , 2013, Front. Behav. Neurosci..

[20]  Stanley B. Klein.  Making the case that episodic recollection is attributable to operations occurring at retrieval rather than to content stored in a dedicated subsystem of long-term memory , 2013, Front. Behav. Neurosci..

[21]  R. N. Spreng,et al.  The Future of Memory: Remembering, Imagining, and the Brain , 2012, Neuron.

[22]  Louis Renoult,et al.  Personal semantics: at the crossroads of semantic and episodic memory , 2012, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[23]  Daniel A. Braun,et al.  A sensorimotor paradigm for Bayesian model selection , 2012, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[24]  Mieke Verfaellie,et al.  MEDIAL TEMPORAL LOBE CONTRIBUTIONS TO FUTURE THINKING: EVIDENCE FROM NEUROIMAGING AND AMNESIA. , 2012, Psychologica Belgica.

[25]  A. Hupbach,et al.  Memory formation, consolidation and transformation , 2012, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

[26]  S. Klein.  the self and its brain , 2012 .

[27]  D. Addis,et al.  Considering the role of semantic memory in episodic future thinking: evidence from semantic dementia. , 2012, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[28]  Rachel J. Anderson.  Imagining novel futures: The roles of event plausibility and familiarity , 2012, Memory.

[29]  S. Klein,et al.  Memory and the Sense of Personal Identity , 2012 .

[30]  L. Green,et al.  Future decision‐making without episodic mental time travel , 2012, Hippocampus.

[31]  Margaret L. Schlichting,et al.  The hippocampus and inferential reasoning: building memories to navigate future decisions , 2012, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[32]  T. Lane.  Toward an explanatory framework for mental ownership , 2012 .

[33]  Karl K. Szpunar,et al.  Does The Future Exist , 2011 .

[34]  D. Schacter,et al.  The Hippocampus and Imagining the Future: Where Do We Stand? , 2011, Front. Hum. Neurosci..

[35]  Eleanor A. Maguire,et al.  Patient HC with developmental amnesia can construct future scenarios , 2011, Neuropsychologia.

[36]  D. Schacter,et al.  Hippocampal contributions to the episodic simulation of specific and general future events , 2011, Hippocampus.

[37]  K. Szpunar,et al.  Individual differences in time perspective predict autonoetic experience , 2011, Consciousness and Cognition.

[38]  Stephanie Clarke,et al.  Growing up with bilateral hippocampal atrophy: From childhood to teenage , 2011, Cortex.

[39]  Mieke Verfaellie,et al.  Medial Temporal Lobe Damage Causes Deficits in Episodic Memory and Episodic Future Thinking Not Attributable to Deficits in Narrative Construction , 2011, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[40]  Karl K. Szpunar,et al.  Varieties of Future Experience , 2011 .

[41]  Hans J. Markowitsch,et al.  Memory, autonoetic consciousness, and the self , 2011, Consciousness and Cognition.

[42]  D. Corish.  Earlier and Later If and Only If Past, Present and Future , 2010, Philosophy.

[43]  E. Tulving,et al.  Consciousness of subjective time in the brain , 2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[44]  S. Klein,et al.  The unanticipated resilience of trait self-knowledge in the face of neural damage , 2010, Memory.

[45]  Kristin N. Mauldin,et al.  Role of the hippocampus in remembering the past and imagining the future , 2010, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[46]  D. O’Neill.  The Man with a Shattered World , 2010, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[47]  K. Szpunar.  Episodic Future Thought , 2010, Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

[48]  S. Klein,et al.  Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences the Multiplicity of Self: Neuropsychological Evidence and Its Implications for the Self as a Construct in Psychological Research , 2022 .

[49]  A. Byrne.  Recollection, perception, imagination , 2010 .

[50]  M. Matthen.  Is memory preservation? , 2010 .

[51]  O. Blanke,et al.  Subjective mental time: the functional architecture of projecting the self to past and future , 2009, The European journal of neuroscience.

[52]  K. Jellinger,et al.  The Missing Link in Cognition. Origins of self-reflective consciousness , 2009 .

[53]  Donna Rose Addis,et al.  Mental time travel and the shaping of the human mind , 2009, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[54]  L. Squire.  The Legacy of Patient H.M. for Neuroscience , 2009, Neuron.

[55]  D. Yves von Cramon,et al.  Thinking about the future versus the past in personal and non-personal contexts , 2008, Brain Research.

[56]  Giovanni Pezzulo,et al.  Coordinating with the Future: The Anticipatory Nature of Representation , 2008, Minds and Machines.

[57]  R. Lebow.  The Future of Memory , 2008 .

[58]  C. Hoerl.  On being stuck in time , 2008 .

[59]  K. Szpunar,et al.  Episodic future thought and its relation to remembering: Evidence from ratings of subjective experience , 2008, Consciousness and Cognition.

[60]  D. Schacter,et al.  Episodic Simulation of Future Events , 2008, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[61]  Pascale Piolino,et al.  Autobiographical Memory, the Sense of Recollection and Executive Functions After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury , 2007, Cortex.

[62]  D. Hassabis,et al.  Deconstructing episodic memory with construction , 2007, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[63]  M. Corballis,et al.  The evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans? , 2007, The Behavioral and brain sciences.

[64]  D. Schacter,et al.  The cognitive neuroscience of constructive memory: remembering the past and imagining the future , 2007, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[65]  Alana T. Wong,et al.  Remembering the past and imagining the future: Common and distinct neural substrates during event construction and elaboration , 2007, Neuropsychologia.

[66]  Randy L. Buckner,et al.  Self-projection and the brain , 2007, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[67]  M. Linden,et al.  Phenomenal characteristics associated with projecting oneself back into the past and forward into the future: Influence of valence and temporal distance , 2004, Consciousness and Cognition.

[68]  Leda Cosmides,et al.  A THEORY OF AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY: NECESSARY COMPONENTS AND DISORDERS RESULTING FROM THEIR LOSS , 2004 .

[69]  J. Dunn.  Remember-know: a matter of confidence. , 2004, Psychological review.

[70]  Francis Eustache,et al.  Semantic acquisition in childhood amnesic syndrome: a prospective study , 2004, Neuroreport.

[71]  J. Kihlstrom,et al.  THE EFFECTS OF EPISODIC MEMORY LOSS ON AN AMNESIC PATIENT ’ S ABILITY TO REMEMBER THE PAST AND IMAGINE THE FUTURE , 2003 .

[72]  Leda Cosmides,et al.  A SOCIAL-COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE ANALYSIS OF THE SELF , 2002 .

[73]  Sarah S. Chance,et al.  Decisions and the evolution of memory: multiple systems, multiple functions. , 2002, Psychological review.

[74]  C. Atance,et al.  Episodic future thinking , 2001, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[75]  G. Barba,et al.  Memory, Consciousness and Temporality , 2001, Neurobiological Foundation of Aberrant Behaviors.

[76]  J. Gardiner.  Episodic memory and autonoetic consciousness: a first-person approach. , 2001, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[77]  M. Mishkin,et al.  Developmental amnesia associated with early hypoxic-ischaemic injury. , 2000, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[78]  Jonathan K. Foster,et al.  Memory : systems, process, or function? , 1999 .

[79]  E. Tulving,et al.  Episodic memory and the self in a case of isolated retrograde amnesia. , 1998, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[80]  G. Denes,et al.  Confabulation: Remembering ‘another’ past, planning ‘another’ future , 1997 .

[81]  M. Corballis,et al.  Mental time travel and the evolution of the human mind. , 1997, Genetic, social, and general psychology monographs.

[82]  E. Tulving,et al.  Toward a theory of episodic memory: the frontal lobes and autonoetic consciousness. , 1997, Psychological bulletin.

[83]  L. Nadel,et al.  Memory consolidation, retrograde amnesia and the hippocampal complex , 1997, Current Opinion in Neurobiology.

[84]  M. Broman,et al.  Severe anterograde amnesia with onset in childhood as a result of anoxic encephalopathy. , 1997, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[85]  Robert Klee,et al.  Introduction to the Philosophy of Science: Cutting Nature at Its Seams , 1996 .

[86]  Philip J. Hilts,et al.  Memory's ghost : the strange tale of Mr. M and the nature of memory , 1995 .

[87]  Donald T. Stuss,et al.  Severe remote memory loss with minimal anterograde amnesia: A clinical note , 1988, Brain and Cognition.

[88]  Hermann Ebbinghaus,et al.  Memory: a contribution to experimental psychology. , 1987, Annals of neurosciences.

[89]  W. James.  The principles of psychology , 1983 .

[90]  John Brown,et al.  Recall and Recognition , 1976 .

[91]  W. Scoville,et al.  LOSS OF RECENT MEMORY AFTER BILATERAL HIPPOCAMPAL LESIONS , 1957, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[92]  F. H. Bradley,et al.  Why do we remember forwards and not backwards , 1887 .

[93]  R. N. Spreng,et al.  Seeing the Future : Theoretical Perspectives on Future-Oriented Mental Time Travel , 2017 .

[94]  Clara E. Bussenius,et al.  Memory : A Contribution to Experimental Psychology , 2017 .

[95]  S. Klein,et al.  The complex act of projecting oneself into the future. , 2013, Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science.

[96]  M. Bar.  Predictions in the brain : using our past to generate a future , 2011 .

[97]  S. Klein,et al.  Facing the future: Memory as an evolved system for planning future acts , 2010, Memory & cognition.

[98]  T. Suddendorf.  Episodic memory versus episodic foresight: Similarities and differences. , 2010, Wiley interdisciplinary reviews. Cognitive science.

[99]  Pascal Boyer,et al.  Memory in Mind and Culture: What Are Memories For? Functions of Recall in Cognition and Culture , 2009 .

[100]  E. Tulving.  Episodic Memory and Autonoesis: Uniquely Human? , 2005 .

[101]  S. Klein,et al.  The Cognitive Neuroscience of Knowing One's Self. , 2004 .

[102]  T. Natsoulas.  What is this autonoetic consciousness , 2003 .

[103]  H. Markowitsch,et al.  The Self in Neuroscience and Psychiatry: Autonoetic consciousness , 2003 .

[104]  E. Tulving.  Episodic memory: from mind to brain. , 2002, Annual review of psychology.

[105]  W. Heisenberg.  Physics and Philosophy , 2000 .

[106]  J. Rybash,et al.  Aging and Autobiographical Memory: The Long and Bumpy Road , 1999 .

[107]  J. Gabrieli.  Cognitive neuroscience of human memory. , 1998, Annual review of psychology.

[108]  N. Ellis,et al.  The specificity of autobiographical memory and imageability of the future , 1996, Memory & cognition.

[109]  T. Suddendorf.  Discovery of the Fourth Dimension: Mental Time Travel and Human Evolution , 1994 .

[110]  Robert S. Wyer,et al.  The mental representation of trait and autobiographical knowledge about the self , 1993 .

[111]  Andros Loizou,et al.  The reality of time , 1986 .

[112]  E. Tulving.  Memory and consciousness. , 1985 .

[113]  D. Ingvar.  "Memory of the future": an essay on the temporal organization of conscious awareness. , 1985, Human neurobiology.

[114]  E. Tulving.  Elements of episodic memory , 1983 .

[115]  T. Cottle,et al.  The present of things future;: Explorations of time in human experience , 1974 .

[116]  A. Newell.  You can't play 20 questions with nature and win : projective comments on the papers of this symposium , 1973 .

[117]  Richard Sorabji,et al.  Aristotle on Memory , 1972 .

[118]  E. Tulving,et al.  Episodic and semantic memory , 1972 .

[119]  P. Fraisse.  The psychology of time , 1963 .

[120]  Andrew D. Wilson,et al.  Embodied Cognition is Not What you Think it is , 2013, Front. Psychology.