title: Visual perspective in remembering and episodic future thought.
abstract: According to the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis, remembering and episodic future thinking are supported by a common set of constructive processes. In the present study, we directly addressed this assertion in the context of third-person perspectives that arise during remembering and episodic future thought. Specifically, we examined the frequency with which participants remembered past events or imagined future events from third-person perspectives. We also examined the different viewpoints from which third-person perspective events were remembered or imagined. Although future events were somewhat more likely to be imagined from a third-person perspective, the spatial viewpoint distributions of third-person perspectives characterizing remembered and imagined events were highly similar. These results suggest that a similar constructive mechanism may be at work when people remember events from a perspective that could not have been experienced in the past and when they imagine events from a perspective that could not be experienced in the future. The findings are discussed in terms of their consistency with--and as extensions of--the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Washington University in St. Louis , St Louis , MO , USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: McDermott
authors.affiliation: b Department of Psychology , Washburn University , Topeka KS , USA.
authors.forename: Cynthia L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Wooldridge
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Washington University in St. Louis , St Louis , MO , USA.
authors.forename: Heather J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Rice
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Washington University in St. Louis , St Louis , MO , USA.
authors.forename: Jeffrey J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.affiliation: c Department of Psychology , University of Illinois at Chicago , Chicago , IL , USA.
authors.forename: Karl K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Szpunar
mesh_terms: D001244:Association; D003463:Cues; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D012931:Social Environment; D013334:Students; D013850:Thinking / Q000502:physiology*; D014495:Universities; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Autobiographical memory; Episodic future thought; Mental time travel; Simulation; Visual perspective