Frequency, characteristics and functions of future‐oriented thoughts in daily life
Open accessAbstract
Despite the growing interest in future‐oriented cognition in various areas of psychology, there is still little empirical data regarding the occurrence and nature of future‐oriented thoughts in daily life. In this study, participants recorded future‐oriented thoughts occurring in natural settings and rated their characteristics and functions. The results show that future‐oriented thoughts occur frequently in daily life and can take different representational formats (more or less abstract), embrace various thematic contents (e.g. work, relationships) and serve a range of functions (e.g. action planning, decision making). The functions and characteristics of thoughts differed according to their temporal distance, with thoughts referring to the near future being more specific and serving action planning to a greater extent than thoughts concerning the far future. The characteristics of future thoughts were also related to affective content, with positive thoughts being more frequent, more specific, and associated with more visual images than negative thoughts. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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In behavioural studies, everyday inner speech is often reported to be involved in self-awareness, past and future thinking and emotional reflection.
“In behavioural studies, everyday inner speech is often reported to be involved in self-awareness, past and future thinking and emotional reflection (D’Argembeau et al., 2011; Morin et al., 2011)”
From The brain's conversation with itself: neural substrates of dialogic inner speech (2016) · cites this paper as D’Argembeau et al., 2011
The Results section (page unavailable) reports that future-oriented action planning and decision making were associated with more inner speech than daydreams or reassurances. The Discussion (page unavailable) links inner speech to planning and self-regulation. This supports the future-thinking part, but the study does not establish the claimed involvement of everyday inner speech in past thinking or self-awareness, and its findings on reassurances do not support the broad emotional-reflection claim. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredMany individuals report experiencing an "inner monologue".
“many individuals report experiencing an “inner monologue”21–24.”
From Inner speech in motor cortex and implications for speech neuroprostheses (2025) · cites this paper as [23]
Inner speech experiences are particularly associated with action-planning and decision-making, in contrast to visual forms.
“Experiences of inner speech were particularly associated with action-planning and decision-making, in contrast to more visual forms of future-oriented cognition.”
From Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015) · cites this paper as D'Argembeau, Renaud, and Van der Linden, 2011
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- Authors
- D'Argembeau, A., Renaud, O., & Van der Linden, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Geneva (CH)
- ORCID
- Renaud, Olivier
- Venue
- Applied Cognitive Psychology
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2011-01
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 96-103
- ISSN
- 0888-4080 (ISSN-L)
- 1099-0720
- OpenAlex
- W2016067220
- Cited by
- 428
- References
- 7
- Citations by year
- 2026: 23 · 2025: 22 · 2024: 33 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 27 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 37 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 22 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 30 · 2014: 20 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 22
- FWCI
- 5.65
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Applied Cognitive Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (publishedVersion)
- Open Repository and Bibliography (University of Liège) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Mind wandering and attention
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychological and Temporal Perspectives Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- temporal distance, action planning, decision-making, emotional content, visual imagery
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