Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T14:54:59.858Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The continuum of “looking forward,” and paradoxical requirements from memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 October 2007

Moshe Bar
Moshe Bar
Affiliation:
Martinos Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129. bar@nmr.mgh.harvard.eduhttp://barlab.mgh.harvard.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The claim that nonhuman animals lack foresight is common and intuitive. I propose an alternative whereby foresight is a gradual continuum in that it is present in animals to the extent that it is needed. A second aspect of this commentary points out that the requirements that the memory that mediates foresight be both specific yet flexible seem contradictory.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 30 , Issue 3 , June 2007 , pp. 315 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Babb, S. J. & Crystal, J. D. (2006) Episodic-like memory in the rat. Current Biology 16:1317–21.Google Scholar
Bar, M. (2004) Visual objects in context. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 5:617–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bar, M. (2007) The proactive brain: Using analogies and associations to generate predictions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 11(7):280–89.Google Scholar
Bar, M., Aminoff, E., Mason, M. & Fenske, M. (2007) The units of thought. Hippocampus 17(6):420–28.Google Scholar
Eichenbaum, H. & Fortin, N. J. (2005) Bridging the gap between brain and behavior: Cognitive and neural mechanisms of episodic memory. Journal of the Experimental Analalysis of Behaviour 84:619–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, D. T. (2006) Stumbling on happiness. Knopf.Google Scholar
Hassabis, D., Kumaran, D., Vann, S. D. & Maguire, E. A. (2007) Patients with hippocampal amnesia cannot imagine new experiences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104(5):1726–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ingvar, D. H. (1985) Memory of the future: An essay on the temporal organization of conscious awareness. Human Neurobiology 4:127–36.Google ScholarPubMed
Klein, S. B., Loftus, J. & Kihlstrom, J. F. (2002b) Memory and temporal experience: The effects of episodic memory loss on an amnesic patient's ability to remember the past and imagine the future. Social Cognition 20:353–79.Google Scholar
Mulcahy, N. J. & Call, J. (2006) Apes save tools for future use. Science 312:1038–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raby, C. R., Alexis, D. M., Dickinson, A. & Clayton, N. S. (2007) Planning for the future by western scrub-jays. Nature 445(7130):919–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reebs, S. G. & Lague, M. (2000) Daily food-anticipatory activity in golden shiners. A test of endogenous timing mechanisms. Physiology and Behavior 70:35–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Squire, L. R. & Zola, S. M. (1998) Episodic memory, semantic memory, and amnesia. Hippocampus 8:205–11.3.0.CO;2-I>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed