The DOI matches its Crossref record; 83 of the 87 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Evolutionary economics of mental time travel?
Abstract
What is the function of our capacity for 'mental time travel'? Evolutionary considerations suggest that vivid memory and imaginative foresight may be crucial cognitive devices for human decision making. Our emotional engagement with past or future events gives them great motivational force, which may counter a natural tendency towards time discounting and impulsive, opportunistic behavior. In this view, whereas simple episodic memory provides us with a store of relevant, case-based information to guide decisions, mental time travel nudges us towards more restrained choices, which in the long term are advantageous, especially so given human dependence on cooperation and coordination.
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“Explicitly instructed future orientation leads to ( i ) withinsubject reduction in discount rates (27 -29)”
From Adolescent impatience decreases with increased frontostriatal connectivity (2015) · cites this paper as [28]
In the citing paper
“Indeed, construction of detached probabilistic scenes has been argued to influence ongoing decision making by estimating outcomes of behavioral choices (Boyer 2008; Suddendorf and Corballis 2007; Schilbach et al. 2008b).”
From Parsing the neural correlates of moral cognition: ALE meta-analysis on morality, theory of mind, and empathy (2012) · cites this paper as Boyer 2008
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The future of memory: remembering, imagining, and the brain
Schacter, D. L., Addis, D. R., Hassabis, D., Martin, V. C., Spreng, R. N., & Szpunar, K. K. (2012) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2012.11.001 · Cited by 1,398
Spreng, R. N., & Grady, C. L. (2010) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21282 · Cited by 985
Peters, J., & Büchel, C. (2010) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.026 · Cited by 871
Emotion and the prefrontal cortex: an integrative review
Dixon, M. L., Thiruchselvam, R., Todd, R., & Christoff, K. (2017) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/bul0000096 · Cited by 745
The neural mechanisms of inter-temporal decision-making: understanding variability
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Metadata
- Authors
- Boyer, P.
- Affiliations
- Washington University in St. Louis (US)
- Corresponding author
- Boyer, Pascal
- ORCID
- Boyer, Pascal
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2008-06
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 219-224
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2155578313
- Cited by
- 413
- References
- 87
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 26 · 2022: 23 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 36 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 26 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 31 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 2.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Keywords
- mental time travel, episodic memory, delay discounting, impulsivity, decision-making, emotional engagement, evolutionary psychology, cooperation
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Cognition, Decision Making, Emotions, Biological Evolution, Humans, Imagination, Memory, Models, Psychological, Neuropsychological Tests, Time Perception
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