scholarly journals I remember. Differences between the Neanderthal and modern human mind

10.4312/dp.25 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 402
Author(s):  
Simona Petru
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Mental Time Travel ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Personal Time ◽  
Perception Of Time ◽  
Grave Goods

Modern humans remember things they experience as personal events. An important reason for this personal perception of time is episodic memory, which enables mental time travel. This type of memory could not have been fully evolved in Neanderthals and they might not have imagined their personal past and future. Thus, their archaeological record does not contain durable objects which would be preserved from one generation to another. Their burials also do not include convincing grave goods that indicate a belief that personal time continues after death.

scholarly journals I remember. Differences between the Neanderthal and modern human mind

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
pp. 402-415
Author(s):  
Simona Petru
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Modern Human ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Mental Time Travel ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Modern Humans ◽  
Personal Time ◽  
Perception Of Time ◽  
Grave Goods

Modern humans remember things they experience as personal events. An important reason for this personal perception of time is episodic memory, which enables mental time travel. This type of memory could not have been fully evolved in Neanderthals and they might not have imagined their personal past and future. Thus, their archaeological record does not contain durable objects which would be preserved from one generation to another. Their burials also do not include convincing grave goods that indicate a belief that personal time continues after death.

scholarly journals Mental time travel and the shaping of the human mind

2009 ◽  
Vol 364 (1521) ◽  
pp. 1317-1324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Suddendorf ◽  
Donna Rose Addis ◽  
Michael C. Corballis
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Mental Time Travel ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
The World ◽  
Survival And Reproduction ◽  
Conscious Recollection ◽  
Future Events

Episodic memory, enabling conscious recollection of past episodes, can be distinguished from semantic memory, which stores enduring facts about the world. Episodic memory shares a core neural network with the simulation of future episodes, enabling mental time travel into both the past and the future. The notion that there might be something distinctly human about mental time travel has provoked ingenious attempts to demonstrate episodic memory or future simulation in non-human animals, but we argue that they have not yet established a capacity comparable to the human faculty. The evolution of the capacity to simulate possible future events, based on episodic memory, enhanced fitness by enabling action in preparation of different possible scenarios that increased present or future survival and reproduction chances. Human language may have evolved in the first instance for the sharing of past and planned future events, and, indeed, fictional ones, further enhancing fitness in social settings.

An Evolutionary Perspective on Mental Time Travel

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Suddendorf
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Deliberate Practice ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Mental Time Travel ◽  
Evolutionary Perspective ◽  
Scenario Building ◽  
Memory Traces ◽  
Fitness Consequences ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Archeological Evidence

This article examines the nature and evolution of mental time travel. Evidence for capacities in other animals is reviewed and evaluated in terms of which components of the human faculty appear to be shared and which are unique. While some nonhuman animals store episodic memory traces and can display a range of future-directed capacities, they do not appear to share the open-ended ability to construct mental scenarios, to embed them into larger narratives, nor to reflect and communicate on what they entail. Nested scenario building and the urge to exchange mental experiences seem to set human minds apart in this context as in many others. The article ends with a discussion of the archeological evidence for mental time travel, focusing on deliberate practice as an example of its tremendous fitness consequences.

An adaptive function of mental time travel: Motivating farsighted decisions

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland G. Benoit ◽  
Ruud M. W. J. Berkers ◽  
Philipp C. Paulus
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Memory System ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Mental Time Travel ◽  
Adaptive Function ◽  
Central Function ◽  
Phenomenological Experience

AbstractThe episodic memory system allows us to experience the emotions of past, counterfactual, and prospective events. We outline how this phenomenological experience can convey motivational incentives for farsighted decisions. In this way, we challenge important arguments for Mahr & Csibra's (M&C's) conclusion that future-oriented mental time travel is unlikely to be a central function of episodic memory.

scholarly journals The Structure of Episodic Memory: Ganeri's ‘Mental Time Travel and Attention’

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 374-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susanna Siegel ◽  
Nicholas Silins
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Mental Time Travel

Measuring mental time travel: Is the hippocampus really critical for episodic memory and episodic foresight?

Cortex ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 117 ◽  
pp. 371-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Beyon Miloyan ◽  
Kimberley A. McFarlane ◽  
Thomas Suddendorf
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Mental Time Travel ◽  
Episodic Foresight

Zooming In and Out on One's Life: Autobiographical Representations at Multiple Time Scales

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (11) ◽  
pp. 2037-2055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnaud D'Argembeau
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Knowledge ◽  
Cognitive Architecture ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Time Travel ◽  
Mental Time Travel ◽  
Multiple Time Scales ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Medial Pfc

The ability to decouple from the present environment and explore other times is a central feature of the human mind. Research in cognitive psychology and neuroscience has shown that the personal past and future is represented at multiple timescales and levels of resolution, from broad lifetime periods that span years to short-time slices of experience that span seconds. Here, I review this evidence and propose a theoretical framework for understanding mental time travel as the capacity to flexibly navigate hierarchical layers of autobiographical representations. On this view, past and future thoughts rely on two main systems—event simulation and autobiographical knowledge—that allow us to represent experiential contents that are decoupled from sensory input and to place these on a personal timeline scaffolded from conceptual knowledge of the content and structure of our life. The neural basis of this cognitive architecture is discussed, emphasizing the possible role of the medial pFC in integrating layers of autobiographical representations in the service of mental time travel.

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