Characteristics of personally important episodic memories, counterfactual thoughts, and future projections across age and culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 1020-1033
Author(s):  
Müge Özbek ◽  
Annette Bohn ◽  
Dorthe Berntsen
Keyword(s):  
Future Projections ◽  
Episodic Memories

scholarly journals Why do I think and talk about it? Perceived functions and phenomenology of episodic counterfactual thinking compared with remembering and future thinking

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (10) ◽  
pp. 2101-2114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Müge Özbek ◽  
Annette Bohn ◽  
Dorthe Berntsen
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Self Regulation ◽  
Counterfactual Thinking ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Future Projections ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
The Past ◽  
Social Sharing ◽  
Episodic Memories

People revisit situations from their past and imagine what could have happened had the situation played out differently. This form of hypothetical thinking is known as episodic counterfactual thinking. The reasons why people engage in episodic counterfactual thinking have not been examined in the same context with remembering the past and imagining the future. We addressed this gap, by focusing on the perceived functions and phenomenological characteristics of the most important episodic counterfactuals compared with episodic memories and future projections in younger adults. We base our analyses on four categories of functions previously identified for past events: reflective, social, generative, and ruminative. The reflective and social functions dominated across all events, with the reflective function being most pronounced for future projections, potentially suggesting a close connection between future projections and self-regulation and/or identity formation. Counter to predictions, the ruminative function was not rated higher for episodic counterfactuals than for other events; however, ratings of ruminative function showed unique correlations with the emotional intensity and involuntary remembering for episodic counterfactuals. Overall, these results suggest that episodic counterfactuals are used for self-reflection and social sharing more than they are used for rumination and generative concerns.

Inefficient Encoding as an Explanation for Age-Related Deficits in Recollection-Based Processing

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 148-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Friedman ◽  
Ray Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Semantic Retrieval ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Face ◽  
Episodic Memories

A cardinal feature of aging is a decline in episodic memory (EM). Nevertheless, there is evidence that some older adults may be able to “compensate” for failures in recollection-based processing by recruiting brain regions and cognitive processes not normally recruited by the young. We review the evidence suggesting that age-related declines in EM performance and recollection-related brain activity (left-parietal EM effect; LPEM) are due to altered processing at encoding. We describe results from our laboratory on differences in encoding- and retrieval-related activity between young and older adults. We then show that, relative to the young, in older adults brain activity at encoding is reduced over a brain region believed to be crucial for successful semantic elaboration in a 400–1,400-ms interval (left inferior prefrontal cortex, LIPFC; Johnson, Nessler, & Friedman, 2013 ; Nessler, Friedman, Johnson, & Bersick, 2007 ; Nessler, Johnson, Bersick, & Friedman, 2006 ). This reduced brain activity is associated with diminished subsequent recognition-memory performance and the LPEM at retrieval. We provide evidence for this premise by demonstrating that disrupting encoding-related processes during this 400–1,400-ms interval in young adults affords causal support for the hypothesis that the reduction over LIPFC during encoding produces the hallmarks of an age-related EM deficit: normal semantic retrieval at encoding, reduced subsequent episodic recognition accuracy, free recall, and the LPEM. Finally, we show that the reduced LPEM in young adults is associated with “additional” brain activity over similar brain areas as those activated when older adults show deficient retrieval. Hence, rather than supporting the compensation hypothesis, these data are more consistent with the scaffolding hypothesis, in which the recruitment of additional cognitive processes is an adaptive response across the life span in the face of momentary increases in task demand due to poorly-encoded episodic memories.

Transient high-resolution regional climate simulation for Greece over the period 1960-2100: evaluation and future projections

2015 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Zanis ◽  
E Katragkou ◽  
C Ntogras ◽  
G Marougianni ◽  
A Tsikerdekis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Climate Simulation ◽  
Regional Climate Simulation ◽  
Future Projections

Experimental Design as a Retrieval Method for Assessing the Phenomenological Characteristics of Episodic Memories, Episodic Future Thoughts, and Episodic Counterfactual Thoughts

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jared Branch
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Design ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Retrieval Method ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Demand Effects ◽  
Episodic Memories ◽  
Theoretical Considerations

Studies assessing the phenomenological characteristics of episodic memories, episodic future thoughts, and episodic counterfactual thoughts normally utilize a within-subjects design. As such, there are concerns that the observed similarities in phenomenological characteristics are the result of demand effects or other related matters, rather than theoretical considerations. In this study, a within-subjects experimental design was directly compared with a between-subjects experimental design. In both conditions, participants responded to existing questionnaires used to assess phenomenological characteristics of episodic memories, episodic future thoughts, and episodic counterfactual thoughts. The within-subjects design resulted more often in significant findings and larger effect sizes compared to the between-subjects design. The implications for experimental design in future studies is discussed.

scholarly journals Future projections for terrestrial biomes indicate widespread warming and moisture reduction in forests up to 2100 in South America

2021 ◽  
pp. e01441
Author(s):  
Luciano J.S. Anjos ◽  
Everaldo Barreiros de Souza ◽  
Calil Torres Amaral ◽  
Tassio Koiti Igawa ◽  
Peter Mann de Toledo
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Future Projections ◽  
Terrestrial Biomes

Future projections in tropical cyclone activity over multiple CORDEX domains from RegCM4 CORDEX-CORE simulations

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Abraham Torres-Alavez ◽  
Russell Glazer ◽  
Filippo Giorgi ◽  
Erika Coppola ◽  
Xuejie Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Tropical Cyclone ◽  
Tropical Cyclone Activity ◽  
Cyclone Activity ◽  
Future Projections
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