de Vito Stefania, Buonocore Antimo, Bonnefon Jean-François, Della Sala Sergio
a Centre de Recherche de l'Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière , INSERM , Paris , France.
Memory. 2015;23(6):796-805. doi: 10.1080/09658211.2014.927888. Epub 2014 Jun 17.
Remembering the past and imagining the future both rely on complex mental imagery. We considered the possibility that constructing a future scene might tap a component of mental imagery that is not as critical for remembering past scenes. Whereas visual imagery plays an important role in remembering the past, we predicted that spatial imagery plays a crucial role in imagining the future. For the purpose of teasing apart the different components underpinning scene construction in the two experiences of recalling episodic memories and shaping novel future events, we used a paradigm that might selectively affect one of these components (i.e., the spatial). Participants performed concurrent eye movements while remembering the past and imagining the future. These concurrent eye movements selectively interfere with spatial imagery, while sparing visual imagery. Eye movements prevented participants from imagining complex and detailed future scenes, but had no comparable effect on the recollection of past scenes. Similarities between remembering the past and imagining the future are coupled with some differences. The present findings uncover another fundamental divergence between the two processes.
回忆过去和想象未来都依赖于复杂的心理意象。我们考虑了这样一种可能性，即构建未来场景可能会利用心理意象的一个组成部分，而这个组成部分对于回忆过去场景来说并非至关重要。虽然视觉意象在回忆过去中起着重要作用，但我们预测空间意象在想象未来中起着关键作用。为了区分支撑回忆情景记忆和塑造新颖未来事件这两种体验中场景构建的不同组成部分，我们采用了一种可能会选择性地影响其中一个组成部分（即空间部分）的范式。参与者在回忆过去和想象未来时进行同步眼球运动。这些同步眼球运动选择性地干扰空间意象，同时不影响视觉意象。眼球运动使参与者无法想象复杂而详细的未来场景，但对过去场景的回忆没有类似影响。回忆过去和想象未来之间既有相似之处，也存在一些差异。目前的研究结果揭示了这两个过程之间的另一个根本差异。
