Seeing the Future ─ Theoretical Perspectives on Future-Oriented Mental Timetravel

Episodic memory has become a major area of research in psychology. Initially viewed as a distinct store of information derived from experienced episodes, episodic memory is understood today more as a form of mental "time travel" into one's personal past. Recent research has revealed striking similarities between episodic memory-past-oriented mental time travel-and future-oriented mental time travel (FMTT).

Seeing the Future: Theoretical Perspectives on Future-Oriented Mental Time Travel brings together leading contributors in both empirical and theoretical disciplines to present the first interdisciplinary look at human ability to imagine future scenarios. Chapters focus on the challenging conceptual and theoretical questions raised by FMTT, covering themes such as: varieties of future-oriented cognition; relationships between FMTT and episodic memory; subjective temporality in FMTT; the self in FMTT; and functional, evolutionary and comparative, developmental, and clinical perspectives on FMTT. With its focus on the conceptual issues at the heart of fast-developing research on FMTT, the edited volume will serve graduate students to senior scholars working on or interested in FMTT and related areas as a synthesis of current theoretical thinking and a source of questions for future FMTT research.

Kourken Michaelian, PhD, is a lecturer in the Philosophy Department at University of Otago. His research centers on memory through the philosophy of mind, psychology, and cognitive science.

Stanley B. Klein, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at University of California Santa Barbara and author of The Two Selves: Their Metaphysical Commitments and Functional Independence (OUP 2014).

Karl K. Szpunar, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Psychology and Principal Investigator of the UIC Memory Lab at University of Illinois at Chicago.