Spontaneous Simulation of Future and Past Events
Abstract
Spontaneous future and past events come to mind unintentionally. Previous research supports that environmental cues prompt spontaneous simulation, although the role of specific cues remains unaddressed. Previous work has found that involuntary autobiographical memories are generated in chained-event sequences, which refers to multiple, related events being generated consecutively. We addressed how event and location cues influence spontaneous future and past events, and whether future events occur in chains. In a boring vigilance task, 132 participants located a left-facing arrow amongst right-facing arrows. On 49 of 350 trials, participants encountered event or location cues. Ten times, participants audio-recorded off-task thoughts they felt comfortable sharing. Participants produced more future events for event than for location cues and produced more past events for location than for event cues. Unlike past chains, future chains occurred only for event cues. These results highlight how event and location cues contribute to the spontaneous simulation of events.