Autonoetic consciousness: Reconsidering the role of episodic memory in future-oriented self-projection. Issue 2 (February 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Klein, Stanley B.
• Is Part Of: Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. Volume 69:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 381
• Page End: 401
• Publication Date: 2016-02
• Subjects: Episodic memory -- Autonoetic awareness -- Future-oriented mental time travel; Psychology, Experimental -- Periodicals; Psychophysiology -- Periodicals; Psychology, Comparative -- Periodicals; 150.72405
• DOI: 10.1080/17470218.2015.1007150
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1747-0218

Abstract

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.