تصمیم گیری با ذهن در آینده: شناسایی رشد و مقایسه ای سفر ذهنی در زمان

Mechanisms that produce behavior which increase future survival chances provide an adaptive advantage. The flexibility of human behavior is at least partly the result of one such mechanism, our ability to travel mentally in time and entertain potential future scenarios. We can study mental time travel in children using language. Current results suggest that key developments occur between the ages of three to five. However, linguistic performance can be misleading as language itself is developing. We therefore advocate the use of methodologies that focus on future-oriented action. Mental time travel required profound changes in humans’ motivational system, so that current behavior could be directed to secure not just present, but individually anticipated future needs. Such behavior should be distinguishable from behavior based on current drives, or on other mechanisms. We propose an experimental paradigm that provides subjects with an opportunity to act now to satisfy a need not currently experienced. This approach may be used to assess mental time travel in nonhuman animals. We conclude by describing a preliminary study employing an adaptation of this paradigm for children.

Humans regularly plan future events, be it this weekend’s dinner party, next year’s graduation, or retirement in a couple of decades. We agree with Dawkins that there is something special and distinctly human about this ability (Suddendorf & Busby, 2003a). Furthermore, we have argued that the ability to reconstruct past events, episodic memory (Tulving, 1983 and Tulving, 2002), is an adaptive design feature of this future planning system. Together the ability to revisit the past and to imagine potential futures comprise what is called mental time travel. The evolution of this capacity may go a long way in explaining how humans managed to change the face of the Earth and why we appear so different from other animals (Suddendorf & Corballis, 1997).