Temporally Asymmetric Constraints on Mental Simulation: Retrospection is More Constrained than Prospection

Abstract

In this chapter, we explore whether the peculiarity of contemplating a futuristically fantastical past tense might reflect an important facet of mental simulation in the past versus future tense. In addition to being good science fiction we develop the hypothesis that past tense mental simulation (retrospection) feels different and is more constrained - more subject to “reality checks” - than is future tense mental simulation (prospection). We further hypothesize that temporally asymmetric constraints on retrospection render it as phenomenologically different from prospection (i.e., more effortful and difficult) and lead retrospection to yield predictably different judgmental outcomes from those that follow from prospection.