Mental time travel in animals: the 'when' of mental time travel.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
; 379(1913): 20230398, 2024 Nov 04.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39278242
ABSTRACT
While many aspects of cognition have been shown to be shared between humans and non-human animals, there remains controversy regarding whether the capacity to mentally time travel is a uniquely human one. In this paper, we argue that there are four ways of representing when some event happened four kinds of temporal representation. Distinguishing these four kinds of temporal representation has five benefits. First, it puts us in a position to determine the particular benefits these distinct temporal representations afford an organism. Second, it provides the conceptual resources to foster a discussion about which of these representations is necessary for an organism to count as having the capacity to mentally time travel. Third, it enables us to distinguish stricter from more liberal views of mental time travel that differ regarding which kind(s) of temporal representation is taken to be necessary for mental time travel. Fourth, it allows us to determine the benefits of taking a stricter or more liberal view of mental time travel. Finally, it ensures that disagreement about whether some species can mentally time travel is not merely the product of unrecognized disagreement about which temporal representation is necessary for mental time travel. We argue for a more liberal view, on the grounds that it allows us to view mental time travel as an evolutionarily continuous phenomenon and to recognize that differences in the ways that organisms mentally time travel might reflect different temporal representations, or combinations thereof, that they employ. Our ultimate aim, however, is to create a conceptual framework for further discussion regarding what sorts of temporal representations are required for mental time travel.This article is part of the theme issue 'Elements of episodic memory lessons from 40 years of research'.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Time Perception
/
Cognition
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
/
Philos. trans. - R. Soc., Biol. sci. (Online)
/
Philosophical transactions - Royal Society. Biological sciences (Online)
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Denmark
Country of publication:
United kingdom